Heat wave

I think all marathoners have a streak of masochism in them.  There is no other way to explain why something so painful should feel so good and keep us coming back for more.  That being said, I'm trying out a rather perverse experiment this summer:

I'm going to see if I can go without air conditioning.  There are several reasons, money and environmental concerns among them, but the one most related to running goes like this: I spent six summers living at camp in the woods.  In those six summers, I lived in a small cabin with screen windows and no air conditioning.  My only contact with air conditioning came when I did paperwork at headquarters.  The human body is highly adaptable, and I simply adapted to the fluctuation in temperature - heatwaves included - and dealt with it.

Last summer I had a terrible time running.  I had trouble with simple four mile runs, and I wonder if it was because I spent all of my time in air conditioning and never gave my body a chance to acclimate.  I'm wondering if I can spend more time outside this summer, then it won't be such a shock to my body every time I go for a run.

New Jersey is currently experiencing its first heat wave of the season right now, and I feel like I'm about to go to sleep in an oven tonight.  We'll see how long this experiment lasts...