Ouch, that Sweat Really Stings my Eyes!

I did a brick workout today, and it went GREAT! It was supposed to be 45 minute bike, 15 minute run, both negative split. Zone 1,2 first half, all out the second. As I’ve said before, this plan isn’t quite enough, so I decided to do 1 hour bike, and 2.3 mile run. I did the run in just under 20 minutes. I felt strong and my legs felt speedy. I don’t know what my average speed on the bike was. I could get up and walk over there to check the cateye computer. But, I don’t really care. I FELT good, and that’s enough. Yeah!

Now, as for the stinging problem, maybe this is a female issue…? Here’s that story:

My new cycling sunglasses are really great. The are comfortable, and fit my face nice and snug. So snug in fact, that the sun does not sneak through to my eyes past the top edge. That got me thinking that I could skip my running cap during races…one less thing to worry about during T2, maybe will save me a couple of seconds.

The last brick I did, I skipped the cap and just ran with the sunglasses on. From a “sun in my eyes” point of view, it worked great. However, early on in the run, sweat started running down my forehead into my eyes and really stung. It was so painful that I stopped several times to wipe my eyes, and it was a real distraction. Surely not worth a couple seconds off my T2 time. The running cap has a dry fit liner that helps absorb the sweat: apparently, that works!

Today, I wore my sweat band AND my running cap. It was HOT today. Near the end of the 20 minute run, sweat ran down my eyes and once again, stung to the point of distraction. I ignored it fairly well, pretending I was actually in a race and had no time for weakness.

I never put sunscreen on my forehead before a workout for this very reason. So, I don’t think it’s a sunscreen issue. I remember last summer while training for the Duke half, I had blogged about this same thing. I concluded that it’s not really the sweat that stings… it’s the anti-wrinkle facial cream that I use the night before that is the most likely culprit. Before the Duke half race, I only used vaseline on my eyes. As a 40+ year old woman, I have to have something to combat the dryness, and that does the job without any stinging the next day.

I guess there is some point to blogging. It helps me remember stuff!