Long run (let's face it ANY run) FAIL!

I had good intentions. I got up early (mostly because I woke up at 5 am and couldn't fall asleep again despite also being up from 11pm-1am ARG!), had a snack, and went down to the gym way before sunrise with a bunch of Phedippidations podcasts loaded on my ipod. I decided to attempt my 17 miler on the treadmill because I was afraid that if I waited until sunrise to run outside I would lose motivation.

Good intentions. Absurdly ambitious intentions. I got about 0.6 miles and the deep-seated nightfloat fatigue settled in my body and my brain. I felt like I was trying to run through pudding. And my brain was just so tired there was no way I was going to be able to keep it focused.

I guess the lesson I learned here is the the weekend after 7 days of working nights should be a rest weekend. Or cross-training at most. I'm barely functional (ask my husband- I've never spent so much time on a couch before!) let alone able to do a long run.

I spent the past 1/2 hour sliding into negative thoughts "how do you think you are going to run another marathon in January if you can't do long runs even with a 2-day weekend?", "you have to run long to burn off all the excess calories you eat, you're never going to get back in shape otherwise", "seriously, val, you should at least do a short run!", "how can you already have given up all hopes of working out today- it's only 7am!".

Well, that kind of thinking is not going to make for a fun Sunday!

This morning made me think of 2 (of the many skills) marathon runners must hone to be successful. One is being able to revise expectations- including training schedules- based on obstacles that arise. I've now missed 2 long runs- a 15 from last week and a 17 this week. Rather than feeling bad about the whole thing, I need to sit down with my 3 month plan calendars and revise. Since my next goal race in January (Maui Oceanfront Marathon, baby!) is just for fun, this should be fine.

Also, I need to forgive myself for not getting this run done. I should stop berating myself and feeling like a loser and instead pick myself up with my new training schedule and use this now official rest day for other activities such as laundry, buying new running shoes (I'm well over 500 miles on this pair), finishing Dennis Lehane's book "The Given Day", and enjoying a nice dinner with Adam. B/t long runs, tempo runs, speed work, etc distance runners have so many specific (and llooonng) work-outs to hit we are inevitably going to miss a few here or there. While there is a thin line b/t complacency/being lazy and legitimately taking a break, some days we legitimately need that break and need to forgive ourselves for not getting the run in.

So, Val, you are forgiven. But you've got to nail the rest of the week! And eat less to make up for today's lack of energy expenditure.

Revised week plan:

Sunday: rest day
Monday: 6 miles (Yasoo 800s, 7.1), weights
Tuesday: 15 miles easy, swim
Wednesday: 7 mile long intervals, weights
Thursday: 10 mile tempo, swim
Friday: 10 mile bike, weights
Saturday: 18 miles, easy

Calories: Only 100 cal/day over goal, on average.

Enjoy the last few days of fall, the leaves are almost gone....



My building.