Misery

I had to miss Thursday's workout which was very disappointing. I knew Thursday would be a challenge. The schedule called for a 14 miler on Thursday to follow Wednesday's tough tempo run. I was really looking forward to see how I would respond. But... I was behind at work and was up past midnight working. There was no way I was going to be able to start a 14 miler at 5:00 AM. I kept running gear with me all day just in case I found a spare 2 hours (ha!).

It turned out that I had to rush to a customer site which totally consumed Thursday night, Friday, and Friday night. I didn't get home until 1:00 AM Saturday morning. Yuck. That meant no early morning Saturday long run. I simply couldn't skip two key workouts in a row, though!

So, tired and unmotivated as I was, I drug myself out the door and gutted out a 16 miler. I'm a morning runner for a reason. After the kids get up, I don't want to leave them. I didn't want to go. I didn't want to leave the kids for 2+ hours. On weekdays, stuff comes up to interfere if I don't get it done early in the morning. The weather is much better in the morning. Not to mention most races are in the morning. Anyway...

Today was an exercise in mental toughness. I didn't want to go. I didn't want to continue after the first mile. I started struggling to breathe after 2 miles. My side hurt after 3 miles. My abs were hurting. More than anything, I wanted to quit. Really I wanted to quit the whole time. I somehow kept talking myself out of quitting. It was a huge struggle just to hold an 8:30 pace. Sometimes, that's what running is about: keeping on when all you want to do is stop running.