Long Run-A Very Humbling Experience

I feel like a yoyo. Two weeks ago I ran 11 miles and died. Last week was 12 miles and I did great. Today was 14 miles and I didn't fare as well. I am extremely disillusioned on how hard these long runs are. What I remember was last time when I trained for a marathon running the 14's and feeling good. Those 14's were later in the training season and between 18 mile runs so of course 14 would feel better.

My goal was to run goal pace miles of 8:45's. What I averaged was a 9:05 and my fastest mile was

8:50

8:55

8:50

8:57

8:53

8:52

8:58

9:17

9:05

8:59

9:11

9:19

9:19

9:22

9:14

From the very beginning I struggled to keep the pace down. It was hot and humid. Logically I know that the heat affects how I feel and the pace but its so hard to actually believe that. I long for the cooler weather to know if I can run goal paced miles.

I did really good though in that I did not walk. Around 10 I was starting the negotiation to start walking. At 13 I continued, I reasoned I could at 13.5, then at the corner. What kept me going is knowing the feeling of wanting to walk is training for the end of the marathon when I need to keep going and finish.

In order to hit my 14 miles I had to run past the house. As soon as I stopped I wanted to sit right there in the middle of the street. I knew though if I did that I would topple over and by lying in the middle of the street. Although I seriously considered it I didn't want John coming back out to see where I was and see me laying in the middle of the street. Or anyone else for that matter. Imagine explaining that...oh, I'm fine...just quite tired. I'll be ok and get up soon. I'm really quite comfortable. Oh, did I mention that it started raining too? That would have been a sight.