Waa Waa Waa

Alert:  you are entering a whining zone.

My long run today sucked ass. Here’s where it went wrong:

Mental State

On Saturday, I was really looking forward to the long run. Today, it was hard to get up and I was just in “get ‘er done” mode. As Gilbert might say, there was no joy.

Route

Because of my time crunch, I decided to go from my house. I used my “go to” route, which takes me from my front door through the ‘hood on some of the old Motive Bison Half marathon and the Pervasive 10-miler routes (translation:  hilly). I then added on several miles down Pickfair and Spicewood Parkway to Ashton Ridge, followed by a loop around some side streets, to give me 8 miles out. The plan was simply to turn around and come back for 16. Part of the problem was the hilly nature and the other part was my excessive familiarity with this route (see problem #1) — there was just nothing to get excited about or hold my interest.

Hormones

Dammit, it sucks to be in menopausal limbo. It wreaks havoc with my body. Add to it the stress and nerves of getting ready for my trip, and I have hormonal fluctuation galore. I wish every guy between the ages of 45–60 got a random time penalty of anywhere from 5–30 minutes on his run because then he’d know what sheer hell this is. Ugh. It screws up my breathing and makes me feel dead in addition to bloated and land yacht-ish.

Equipment

I had to carry the Camelbak because it’s a suburban route with no option for water/store/anything. I hadn’t strapped on the 70-ouncer since Pocatello in May, and I felt it. I think the weight from my Camelbak has played a part in my back/hamstring problem because it felt terrible. I had aches in my lower back and my hamstrings — on BOTH sides — were bothering me. This could also tie into problem #2 because I do know that hill work exacerbates the issues. Also, I was wearing my older shoes to keep the newer ones fresh for my suitcase (I am going to try to run after I bike in Germany) and I felt their age in my knees. And to top it all off, I had equipment failure of the girl kind…and I’ll just leave it at that.

Nutrition

I obviously had some nutrition issue because I bonked. Out of gas. Walked most of the last 3 miles in. It was ridiculous.

Body  

Well, see problem #3 and #4 for some of this. My legs were simply dead after 8 miles. I seemed to be back in Ironman training “I’m exhausted as hell and can’t run worth shit” mode, shuffling along (maybe that brings in problem #1). It was simply work and nothing about it felt good. Granted, I’d had a long run on Saturday, a bike ride on Sunday, and my quality work out on Monday (last night, I had a leisurely swim at Pure Austin to deal with all the tension I was feeling, followed by cheering on those who were “dashing” as well as “splashing”), so perhaps I was simply still tired.

What went right, you may ask? I honestly can’t think of a thing. I was so frustrated that I cut a mile off, so I only did 15 instead of the 16 I needed to do, so there aren’t even any props for gutting out the whole thing. Perhaps the only positive is that I put a long run in the bag before hitting the road.

Ah, well…I’ll take it.