Sweat!

These are the dog days of August, and the air is so thick you can spread it on your morning toast.

If you like to sweat, these are the days for you. On these humid afternoons, the sweat won't evaporate, but instead forms beads on your skin and drips off into puddles wherever you stop to stretch so you feel like a walking tropical rain forest.

Wear a dark shirt and soon it will be several shades darker and clinging to your body. Wear any color shirt and soon it will be three times as heavy as when you started.

I like sweat. I like losing six pounds of water weight every time I step outside for a run. As long as I don't have to race in these conditions, I like the feel of moist air against moist skin.

But then I stop running and the sweat keeps coming. I shower, and I'm sweating in the shower. I dry off and within five minutes I'm sweating again. I drink glasses and glasses of water, lemonade, anything... it takes forever to re-hydrate.

It's good to be in shape when you sweat. A fit runner sweats out fewer electrolytes, less salt, than an untrained runner. It's one of the useful adaptations to running in the heat. All this sweat is mostly water, less briny than might be expected.

The best thing about all this sweaty running is that when the heat wave breaks, we'll all feel like we've come down from altitude. We'll be able to run faster and not get tired. We'll have boundless energy. This last weekend felt like that, but now we're back in humidville again.

That's alright. These are the slimy, sweaty, gross days that make fall feel so good.