I hate hitting the wall...

Well ladies and gents, I had my first discouraging run of the training cycle this weekend. I headed out Saturday for an 8-mile long run and was feeling pumped to pound the pavement for over an hour (seriously...what is wrong with me???) To preface this, I've been out pretty regularly hitting 5 miles with no problem. Even did another 8 miler last weekend. You'd have never guessed that from Saturday. I got 6 miles in and my heart rate was completely out of control. Thanks to a combination of waiting too late in the Texas morning to start, the humidity from the recent rains (which are gone again now, unfortunately), the lack of breakfast, and the idiotic decision to start at a faster pace than I have run in the last couple months, I was left completely frustrated and humiliated over the course of the last 2 or so miles.

Fortunately, there's an upside. It REALLY ticked me off. I've hit the street with a newfound vengeance. I'm lacing up the running shoes with the goal of putting that day as far out of my memory as I can. In the 4 days since the failed run I've had successful runs on 3 days and played softball on the 4th day, so I was still as active as a slow pitch pitcher can be. My goal the next few weeks is to focus on stretching out the distances and getting the heart back into shape like it was post-race this spring. Focusing on running three 5 milers a week now and that long of 8. Hopefully in 2 weeks I'll be at a point to increase that up to three 6 milers and bump the long to 9-10.

On a more fun running note, my running buddy is MUCH happier with the cooler weather because it means I'll take her out for longer distances. Lizzie is very glad to be up and running at 4:45 rather than sitting in her crate waiting for us to wake up and let her outside. After the run, she's usually not so excited about what she just did. In fact, here's the typical reaction.



On that note, happy running to everyone. Until next time, I'll leave you with this little bit of wisdom: if you ever remodel your kitchen, make sure you're not sans-sink for 3 weeks. Just trust me on that one.