My long run came unravelled today. I had thoughts of going 18+ with it being a building effort. It turned out to be 13+ with the effort slowing over the run.
I been down this road enough that I know when a workout is going to go south before it actually does. Some might say with thoughts like that I am setting up for a frame of mind that is not geared for success. There might be some truth to that, but it might also be true that I just know myself in this arena. I tried to get around it - had the gear laid out, the water bottles all set, and heck, the weather was even good. But once the legs started moving down the road, I could smell the burning oil. But even then, I told myself not to sweat it - see how it felt after two miles. Well, see how it feels after the first loop. Well, just run two hours. Finally, I think better judgment kicked in I decided to not do battle today, because I wasn't going to win anything anyway. No need for a morale victory here.
The weather was beautiful though. I had hoped to hit three loops of 6+, with each loop being a bit quicker than the last. The advantage of hitting it in a loop fashion would be that I'd be able to water up, and maybe even get some nutrition on each leg. After I finished the first leg in 50, I knew I was not doing great. Nonetheless, I gimped out for the second leg (I took some Nuun on the break, I held that down okay), throughout it thinking how maybe I just do 2 hours and call it a day. But at 80 minutes, I was pretty waxed and knew I needed to call it a day. The second loop proved it - it was at 51 and it felt harder than that.
All is not lost though. This serves as an opportunity for me to consider what went wrong and what went right. On whole, I had a pretty decent training week (call it a B-), with two solid runs at the front end of the week, a good speed workout on Thursday and fair mileage (73). I have been a bit off all week though on little things: my diet has not been bad but has not had the same degree of focus as prior weeks, my abdominal wall hurts, and I have not done any core in a bit (in part because of the gut). Soooo, to address that, I will - I need to - keep a food log next week. I have avoided this because of the tedium associated with it, but I need to see if there is a relationship between specific things I eat and performance. I mean, I know there is, but I need to track it at that more detailed level. I will schedule a physical (with lab work) re: general health, but also to address the ab issue. And I will do some core anyway, but stuff that does not strain the lower abs.
Other side notes ... I reparied my Suunto x9i watch USB cable (with pieces of paper clips) and so was able to charge it. The GPS read on this run was 7 miles plus per loop (twice, for each loop). I have suspected this run to be close to seven miles but mapmyrun puts it at 6.74 miles. Okay, maybe I am being anal about a quarter mile here or there but ... well, it makes a difference, doesn't it? I guess that means that even though I was feeling like crud, I was still running 7:30s (vs. the 8s I was doing last month on easy runs where I felt good). I like the Suunto, since it has a GPS, a compass, a barometer, and a thermometer (and it tells time), but it is a bit of a hassle to get the sats synched in before the run.
Next week ... I am going to make the long run the event of the week. I want to come back and put this particular run to bed. Nonetheless, I will continue to focus on getting speed back and so will also look to get to the track to do quarters. Additionally, I need to get some striders in ... I have been skipping that a bit too much.
I was at the park with my son today and he did some running with our dog. I was watching him ... poor guy has no knee lift (reminds me of an ugly guy related and living in the same house as him). But he has that explosiveness that we have when we are that age. It is neat to see him in that Spring of his life, with a set of gifts he does know he has and hence does not really appreciate. And why should he? When it is spring, we don't think about the dog days of summer, or the winter that is coming later in the year. Instead, we enjoy those flowers right then and there. Me, I am in the Indian Summer. Or I am trying to be ... staving off the Autumnal equinox for as long as I can ...