Yesterday, Matt and I ran around Athens for 16 miles in the heat of the day. Yep, we were running from about 11:00 to 1:00. The late start was born of necessity. I would gladly have gotten started earlier, but it just didn't work out. It was a struggle to hold on. 17 was the target, but I was happy to stop after 16. The pace was about 8:45. I realized too late that I didn't have any gels. All I could find were Jujyfruits. While they're ok when you're mindlessly chewing during a boring movie, I don't know of any marathon champions who fueled on Jujyfruits. It was a struggle to hang on, but I finished strong at near an 8:00 pace in very uncomfortable heat and humidity.
I didn't sleep well last night (or the previous two nights), and Jujyfruits and chocolate milk was just about all of my carb intake yesterday. I woke up tired and I just wasn't able to hang on. This was the worst that I have tanked the Sunday morning run yet. We started at about a 8:50 pace. That gradually dipped to 8:00. By the 5 mile mark, I was toast. I wasn't hurting. I wasn't struggling to breathe. My heart rate wasn't unusually high. I just had no gas (well, no fuel, I did have a little gas). I had to stop and walk for about a quarter mile. Carl and Scott kept cruising. Matt and I ran the next few miles at about 8:20 or so. I cut off a turn to make the route about 0.7 miles shorter and Scott was waiting near the turn. Carl had left him, too. Carl was SMOKIN this AM.
Carl caught us at about the time that we turned onto the high school track, and I was happy to bring in that last half mile at about a 6:45 pace with him. It was fun! But there is no way that I could have hung with him for the whole 10 miles this morning.
I ended up with 9.3 total this morning. Better than none, but I'm hoping for a better week.
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