Thursday, February 22, 2007

Grinding Halt

PM: 6x400m hills; 400m jog rec; 3.5 wm/cd :: 10M

This morning's missed run was a result of fatigue. Not physical, but mental. I woke up a little groggy, but nothing out of the ordinary. I sat on the edge of the bed and all I could think was "Again?". That is the problem with pushing the envelope in training. I can have a good workout on Tuesday and get through a 20 mile day yesterday, but that really affords me no break. I still have to get up today to do it all over again. And tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that. Grinding and grinding and grinding and grinding. Somedays will be better than others, but this is how I will spend my days for the foreseeable future. I wake up, pull on my layers of clothes and step out into the 5:30 a.m. darkness. Its the loneliest feeling, running in the cold and the dark. I'll start to feel better a few minutes into the run and when I get done I'm energized ("I love running!"). But all I can think about on the edge of the bed is the cold. And the darkness. And the loneliness.

That is what I was dealing with this morning. I chose to roll over and go back to bed. For no good reason really. I felt fine, but mentally I had a moment of weakness. The thing is it bugged me all day for the most asinine reason: I felt like my training was going to crap. Because of one missed morning run. Rationally that makes no sense.

I managed to get myself out the door after work and regain some of my momentum. My legs feel fine. I don't think I'm to the point of overtraining, but I'm taking it day by day now. I think the likelihood that I'm going to get in a 40 mile run this weekend is diminishing with every weather report. If it is pouring snow and 20+ mph wind, I don't see the point it forcing myself through the run just to appease the calendar gods. My alternate plan is to cram as much mileage, in total, this weekend. Of course I could try 4+ hours on the treadmill. How badly do I want to get this run in?

As always, my reward for a tough weekend will be to wake up Monday morning and run 10 miles.

LINK
The best SNL commercials (Bad Idea jeans is my favorite)
Best bits from Reno 911 (check out the sobriety test clip)

2 comments:

I am a runner. "We are what we repeatedly do" said...

Hey good job! Honestly you got to listen to that voice sometimes. As long as it is not a 3 times a week annoying voice. You made the right call. Keep up the Trials of miles man. You are inspiring me to continue to run on my own treadmill, and do boring laps around my base here in Egypt. If you are running and Crowther is running...then why the hell should I NOT be running?! I'll see you at JFK and possibly sunmart when I get back from this deployment.

Greg Loomis

WynnMan said...

Don't feel bad! when I read your post it was almost a ditto in some ways. I planned on getting in a 40 miler today as well. I knew running outside was out of the picture as far as getting something rewarding and efficient out of it. I opted for the hampster wheel instead. 40 miles went to the wayside when I started feeling gassy and bloated for some odd reason at about 17 miles. I put in 20 and walked 4 more thinking I could belch out the gas, but I got tired of waiting.
Try it again tomorrow. Hopefully 35miles, but we'll see.

I'm guessing the bloating was from immediately running shortly after breakfast.