Thursday, July 27, 2006

Moments of Frustration…

OK, I'm sure this is becoming tiresome to some, but then again, this is my blog and where else am I going to gripe and whine, but this has been going on for a week and a half and it just doesn’t seem to get better. I was dreading today’s run and apparently for good reason. It sucked…I had plans for running a warm up and cool down mile and a middle tempo run of 7:45-8:00 minute miles for 6 miles…well, first “fast” mile was 8:45, I felt like I was running so much faster than that and I’m so frustrated by this…I got the next mile or two up to 8:30, but that felt tough, and then it slowed down, in fact I decided to bag the run at 6 miles, pulled off 6.5 final in 57:45, an average of around 8:56 per mile pace…horrible. How was I able to run 26.2 miles at 8:30, which felt almost effortless (until Mile 20 I was running the entire way, it felt great and from mile 20 on, I only walked through water stops just cause I needed to to be able to drink, was drowning as I got more tired), to this pathetic attempt…the only run that is a saving grace of any kind in the last 2 weeks is the run on Sunday, that did feel effortless and it was during a hotter part of the day, on less sleep even than some of the other days, and DRINKING the night before…what gives?? What exactly am I doing wrong? I’m actually working at what feels like a higher effort (and I’m running mainly in the AM so it’s not the heat, sure it’s a bit more humid, but it’s cool, and pretty decent weather for a run) than any previous training for slower results. Is my body that drained and tired?? I’m not getting the same amount of sleep as I was over the winter, my eating…hmm, yesterday was seriously crappy, too much sugar by far and not a lot of healthy things, but it’s not something I do ALL the time, and I am actually lighter now than I was during a lot of that training too…so shouldn’t it be easier? I know I’m getting enough calories in the day, although I don’t eat before my morning runs (except the long ones on a Saturday), but that wasn’t a problem during the spring either, the 15 miles I did 2 weeks ago without eating actually didn’t feel that bad, was a bit slower than I wanted, but it felt good, unlike the 17 last week and all the interval training to date…I think I’m going to have to review my training from last time though and see what is different. That training cycle I was on a new total build up after not running much the previous month, this time I’m coming off a training cycle and having run a marathon, it should be easier training shouldn’t it?? At this rate though, I don’t think even a 3:45 is a goal I could have for MCM…I’m just feeling so crappy about things. I guess cutting back on running is something I'm going to have to consider...but with only 12 weeks from Sunday to the marathon, that scares me...with 3 weeks taper, that's only 9 weeks or hard training...but I think for intervals (after this week, it's a cut back week) I'll cut back to only 6 and see what happens and work it from there. Or just focus on tempo type runs...what is more important...it just sucks cause I had no problems with all this prior to June.

I’ll give the run one kind of cool thing…I was running a bit different route than normal, up a hill that actually felt downhill, kind of weird, anyway, I’m running along this road and look to my left (this is after having to switch around my route because the creek I have to run by and through a bit of a tunnel for is flooded, weird cause while we did have some rain, it wasn’t much, definitely not enough to flood the thing and that rain was on Monday!!) and there is a deer, probably 10 feet from me, I jumped, it jumped and took off, but only a little way, I noticed it slowed down once it was “safely” away from me…talk about being as startled as the animal though. Oh, and while yeah, deer aren’t that big of a deal, I do live in a first tier suburb of Minneapolis, the city I’m in has 45,000 or so people…I tease one of my friends that lives way in the outer most suburbs that she’s in the boonies, they have almost 3 acres, have lived there for almost 2 years and have seen deer once (and her husband stays home with the kids so people are around to see), even the deer are moving into the city, they realize the boonies are no fun!!

4 comments:

MNFirefly said...

ROFL...I am SO surprised when people talk about the outer limit of the metro area as the "Boonies". My mom lives in the "boonies" along with my sister and my brother's family, who REALLY live in the southern boonies away from everyone else. My husband has seen those deer who are not afraid of people near Cedar Lake in Minneapolis.

Kurt said...

Your just going through training blues. You will do MCM in less than 3:45 easily.

Besides living in a M state is always risky. Like living in any third world nation!

kay_elle said...

Hang in there Danielle. Sometimes my running is so bad I think I should call it walking! Like you, I really don't know what gives. Just hang in there and this will probably pass as well.

Andy Emerson said...

I've found my training generally goes in cycles where I have some weeks that I have lots of energy. Other weeks, I don't. Some days, I don't have energy, and my runs surprise me.

I know that getting some sleep and taking some days off would help, but I just keep going and hoping it will pass. It does.