Regina and Hot Summer Running in the City

There is something you might think curious about me, in relation to my running.  For some reason, I tend to thrive more in rather hot weather, as long as the humidity is low.  In fact, it is humidity that inhibits my ability to run long distances and recover from them.  But the summer heat, even into the mid-to-upper nineties, causes little in itself to stymie my efforts.  Take today, for example.

The temperature was 88 late in the afternoon, with the humidity at a pretty low 34%.  I embarked on my customary 3.25 mile neighborhood course, the running being a little rough at the beginning but "smoothing" out as it progressed.  I felt the heat, but it felt good to me.  As I continued my run, I felt stronger and unconsciously found myself speeding up.  By the end, it felt as if I were practically sprinting with much energy to spare.  So what gives?

I grew up in Hollywood, Florida, which is only about 15 miles from Miami. Not only were the summers very hot, but summer usually wrapped itself around about three quarters of the year down there in the semi-tropics.  And although the schools I attended had air conditioning, at my house we had none until 1976, just a year before I left home and moved here to Gainesville.  So I had, from almost infancy, been conditioned to live in what might be to others to be a very hot, even sweltering environment.  I suspect this conditioning never completely went away: for many years after moving to Gainesville I didn't run, but still rode a bicycle much of the time, and often under very stifling-hot conditions.  After taking up running in recent years, I pleasantly rediscovered my camel-like ability to endure the heat.  And that's a good thing, because here comes the summertime...

Back in 2010, I had my most prolific summer of running ever, amassing some pretty impressive figures over days when the temperature would regularly climb into the 90's.  During those runs, my MP3 player was always on a shuffled mix of Regina Spektor songs.  What a great voice and creative, talented musical artist.  One of her songs, Summer in the City, became required listening for me during each run: if I was approaching the end of a run and hadn't heard it on my shuffle mode, then I would just play it anyway.  It perfectly fit the setting I was in.

Regina Spektor is now coming out with a new studio album, titled What We Saw from the Cheap Seats.  I can't wait to check out what this favorite musician of mine has been up to lately.  As for me, I plan to keep on runnin'...