Hot and Tired

Wow. This week is just killing me. I don't know what to say. I'm speechless.


... alright, well I think part of the problem is my nutrition. I've been pretty stressed out and when I stress about money in particular, I tend to ration everything. EVERYTHING. This means food too. Trick is, before I started training this didn't matter much. I'd tighten the purse strings and eat a little less and spend less over all. Now, it seems I have done myself quite a disservice by inadvertently depleting my glycogen stores and providing my body with less fuel to work with. Bad.

I ate really well this morning, had a smoothie, some protein, a pb&j on flatbread, fluids. Didn't matter. As I was running I realized that the bonk I had experienced yesterday was just one part of a low-energy food situation. I hadn't eaten poorly yesterday, I hadn't even eaten at the wrong times, but I hadn't been feeding myself well for the last couple of weeks and my muscles and body have suffered for it. Today, as I was running, I felt the effects of that same low-energy drain. I apologized to my body. We are going to go food shopping later.

Anyway, today's run was riddled with pains of all sorts. I started my warm up nice and slow, but had to stop to stretch because my right thigh (interior) felt like I had bruised it or something. It was really painful. After the stretch and easy running my muscle warmed up the pain dissipated and went away. That was disconcerting.

I ran up to the Reservoir and began my first set of 15 minutes by running at about 8:15/8:00. This seemed to be an okay pace, but I found that I was too hot and though I was able to physically maintain the pace, I felt that I needed to slow down a little because my heart rate kept climbing. This was probably also due in part to the fact that I didn't have any fluids with me and I should have. Though, I did take care to stop a few times at the fountains throughout the run. Got a cramp (minor) about 20 minutes in.

I ran the first 15 minute set at an average of 8:30. I am happy with this. My heart rate climbed to 178 at the end though, and I probably should have gone a touch slower to keep myself in range. As I ran my 5 minute recovery set, I wanted to get my HR back down into the 150s. I was on my way, but about halfway through I lost my focus and started going too fast, raising my HR back into the mid 160s. Checked myself, slowed down, started the second 15 minute set with a heart rate of 165.

You'll notice on my data that there is a peak at the beginning of my second set and then a drop. That's because I started going and my HR was already way too high, so I stopped, walked around a bit, dropped my HR back down to a reasonable place and then began again. I feel that this was a good decision on my part, because I would have been too tired to finish otherwise.

The second set was all about focus. I just had to focus on my cadence and my form. I focused on my breathing and my elbows. I didn't go as fast this time (8:49) but I was able to give the last 5 minutes a little bit extra, simulating a race finish for myself. I ran the last five minutes at approximately 8:10. At 45 minutes I got a cramp in my side. This one was pretty painful, but I kept running. I paid attention to it, but mostly I tried to breath oxygen into that part of my body and help it move out without my stopping. That worked.

At the end of the second set (and after the simulated race finish) I allowed myself a minute of walking in order to recover my heart rate, which had climbed into the 180s. Easy run down to the fountain, take a drink, easy run down the bridle path headed home... got to the hill and thought "free speed" but as I leaned into the hill and tried to pick up my cadence I got another horrible side cramp. This one I couldn't run through. I jogged feebly down the hill instead. Bummer.

Finally, I was nearing my one hour finishing point and I was just beat to shit. I headed out of the park and finished on West End Ave, walked to the Starbucks and drank a skim mocha with extra chocolate to recover. Good enough.

What was disappointing about today was that I felt like I was doing what I was supposed to be doing, but my body and my data were consistently against me. That's okay. It is what it is. Good run nonetheless.