so here’s the thing about training through july and august in this city: the runs themselves are fine. i’m not falling apart, my legs aren’t giving out, nothing’s injured. i’m just slow. embarrassingly, consistently slow. and it took me a few humid mornings to accept that this is just what the season is going to look like.

if you’ve run through a toronto summer you know the specific flavor of misery i mean. it’s not just heat, it’s the humidity sitting on top of it like a wet blanket someone forgot to take off the bed. you step outside at 7am thinking you beat it and the air still feels like soup. your splits that used to feel easy suddenly feel like you’re dragging a sled.

the mistake i kept making early on was treating slower paces as a problem to fix instead of just… the deal. you’re not getting worse at running. your body is working overtime just to cool itself down, and that costs you pace whether you like it or not. once i stopped fighting that and just let the pace be what it’s going to be, the runs got a lot more bearable mentally, even if physically they’re still a slog.

a few things that have actually helped:

• run early or run late. i know, groundbreaking advice, thank you aj. but there’s a real difference between an early morning run and one at noon in august, and once you feel that difference you stop making excuses about it. if early mornings aren’t your thing, evenings work too. the middle of the day is a trap.
• or just embrace that it’s going to be miserable. some runs you can’t schedule around the heat. those days, i’ve just made peace with the suck instead of pretending it’s not happening. it’s not going to feel good and that’s fine, you’re not required to enjoy every run.
• always know your way back. heat runs are not the day to get adventurous with a new route far from home. i keep an eye on how far i am from either home base or a subway station at all times in summer, because the last thing you want is to be gassed and overheated 6k from anywhere familiar. having an easy bail option takes a lot of the mental pressure off too, you run knowing you’re never actually stuck.
• hydrate after, not just during. i used to think a bottle of water mid run covered it. it does not. the real rehydrating happens in the hours after, and skipping that step is how you end up dragging for the rest of the day.

none of this is revolutionary. it’s just what running here in july actually looks like, and i’d rather tell you that honestly than pretend i’m out here crushing perfect splits in 30 degree humidity. i’m not. i’m surviving it, slowly, and that counts for something when the waterfront half is still months out and there’s plenty of time to get the speed back once fall shows up.