It had to happen eventually – I had a truly bad run this morning. Not that it is hard to suss out the reason why. Sleep was impossible last night, and I am not exagerating. I saw the clock read 2:00am, then my alarm went off at 5:00am to get me up for my run. I should have known my day was in dire trouble when my Chocolate Outrage GU didn’t lift my mood.
At least Leo got to go to puppy daycare and have a fun time. Someone needed to have a good morning, right?
But I’m going to stick to my goal of finding the positive, no matter the situation. Today was a chance for me to train under less than ideal conditions. And, even though it was ugly, I completed the run. Or rather, I outlasted it.
Sometimes, that is all you can do.
Today’s workout: 11 mile, LSD run (8:00/mi)
The lack of sleep and resultant stress was evident from the beginning of my run. My legs were stiff and I felt slow. If you check the Garmin Connect linked at the bottom of the post, you’ll notice a spike in pace/heart rate just under a mile into the run.
That was my first unscheduled, emergency bathroom stop of the training program. Yeah, it was going to be a rough day.
Coming back from that, I really felt no better. In fact, bile started to rise in my throat. From that point on, my attention was divided between trying to keep my pace from slipping (I only partially succeeded) and trying not to vomit on the indoor track (thankfully, I completely succeeded on this point).
Trying to keep a steady pace was a pipe dream, but I didn’t quite feel bad enough to call off the run. So I decided to just try to survive it. I accepted that my pacing would be crap, but I wanted to put the miles in the books.
This run proved I can run almost an entire half marathon when my body is rebelling against it. I even kept my “extra distance” at the end. Nobody can promise that you’ll have good weather for a race, or a good night’s sleep before hand. Just like when I went through Sand Hill for basic training, I figure if I can survive this I can handle whatever else is thrown at me. Face the worst up front and nothing can faze you after.
And the day did get better. The Team Toledo Triathlon Expo was successfully held today and I made it over for a while. I even sat in on a “Half vs Full Ironman” panel out of curiosity.
Inside the Team Toledo Triathlon Expo
There is roughly zero chance of me adding tri training to my schedule before 2015, but it is fun and instructive to start to gather information and learn who to talk to. Maybe I could combine the tri with Team ASPCA? Something to look into, methinks.
