The weather early this spring has been like a roller coaster: warm and humid one day, cold and windy the next, rinse, repeat. We’ve had 3 days where it has gotten up into the 80s, followed by a couple of days in the 50s and 60s, and today we were back up near 80. Next Tuesday night, there’s a chance we might have a freeze. Welcome to April in Maryland!

Today was the first run I’ve taken in high humidity this year. Something has been dogging my runs over the past couple of weeks. While I haven’t really had a sensation that I was struggling or “hitting the wall”, my average pace has been off by 45-60 seconds/mile, and my energy has been lower (including with other activities like biking and walking). By all accounts, today figured to continue that trend: I’m stressed out and anxious about several things (long story); I slept poorly last night; and weather and schedule conspired to prevent me from running until 1:00pm. Morning is my preferred time of day to run, and for some reason, I always feel a little bit “off” when I run later in the day. Surprisingly, though, today’s run felt great: my energy and form were good, and I finished at a respectable 10:45/mile, which is a good 15 seconds/mile faster than any of my more recent runs, and in line with what I would call my “baseline” speed for this kind of weather. Running is a great way to beat stress: when I get anxious, I develop a “fight or flight” response, which really gets my adrenaline going. Running burns off all of that nervous energy and releases endorphins, which calm me down and improve my mood — a win-win all around.