6.5 miles (?): Schedule vs. Weather (and life)

Ran about 6.5 miles, drank 1.2 liters of water, had 100 calories (1 gel), took 2 Endurolytes. It was in the mid 70s and about 80% humidity, and NO sun for most of the run. The sun popped its ugly head out during the last 1/2 mile or so. It was the best run pace wise I've had in a long time; this is not shocking since it was the best weather day for running in a long time.

It was really nice not to have the limiting factor be solely overheating. I was able to push the pace and so add my lungs and legs as limiting factors. It felt great and was fun.

I use the Runmeter app to track my runs. It is great compare to the others I tried. Today it let me know the GPS had some trouble. You can see a triangle around mile 5 in the map above. I didn't ran a triangle. Normally I can tell the app is fairly accurate by looking closely at the map. It likely had problems because I put the phone in my pocket for a bit when running into the park. The app had me running 7 miles today but I know it was likely closer to 6.5 based on my pace and subtracting out that triangle.

My midweek schedule for this week is T: 3 miles, W: 5 mile and Th: 3 miles. So I was schedule for 3 miles but when I woke up and checked the weather I saw it was in the mid 70's and overcast and was going to be that way for a few hours based on the radar and forecast. I quickly decide to do my longer (5 mile) midweek run today and then once I was out running and feeling good I decided to add one some distance. This also works out well for my non-running life as tomorrow the car must go see the car doctor in the morning so a short 3 miles around the complex will work well.

This hot summer is making me think about the wisdom of a strict daily schedule planned out ahead of time. I'm thinking a better idea would be to have weekly or two-week mileage goals and a long run distance planned out but then do the individual runs based on the weather over that time period. A schedule is good for me motivation wise but building in more flexibility is something I am going to consider for next summer.