And I’m roughly the same shape…
Leonidas yesterday, Kool-Aid Man today. I only look like one of them, but which one is a secret (yeah, right). But like the Kool-Aid Man, I too broke though a wall today. OH YEAAAH!
Since I was able to do a decent run yesterday on a treadmill, I wanted to move ahead and run under my own steam. That took me back to the UT Rec Center to use the indoor track. I can’t wait for it to be bright enough early enough to run safely on the trails in the mornings. Soon… soon.
My success in breaking through the wall this morning leads me even more strongly to believe that increasing both my carbs and total calories is the right path, at least in the short term. There may be no such thing as a silver bullet, but my increased staying power was quite welcome.
For my pre-workout gel this morning, I once again dug into the nutrition box for a gel I bought back at the Team Toledo Tri Expo. Today, however, was Mint Chocolate and it was just as good as I had hoped when I bought it.
To test myself and try to keep me from psyching myself out based on the dreaded 3 mile wall, I hit the Garmin at the beginning of the run and proceeded to ignore it until I had to stop. As with my other recent runs, I felt fine at the outset. The first roughly mile and a half (no peeking at the Garmin!) felt a little swingy as I would find myself pushing the pace and had to force myself to back off.
And then the wall. That dirty SOB was waiting for me, just like I expected. I had to know if I could push through, so I just kept on going. And then the strangest thing happened. It was like my exhaustion balled up in my gut and started to evaporate. It really was like a physical thing that I shed on the track. I felt energized and light after that point.
Wacky, but welcome.
The secret to my success
I’m afraid this means I may have to abandon my sub-90 minute training plan and simply work on regaining my stamina to get through 13.1 miles again with some sort of speed. Disappointing, but not devastating. Mistakes have been made, but so long as lessons were learned I can live with the results.
