Mistakes then The Wall

The first mistake was going to bed at 1:30 a.m. The second was waking up at 7:00. The third was puttering around waiting for M to change his bike tire, and finally going running at 9:00. The fourth was eating a small bowl of cereal. The fifth was drinking water before leaving the house.

Today was my 4-miler.

I started out strong. Felt really good. Really really visualized my end point, which is not always easy for me to do.

But it was HOT. 96 degrees when I started. My feet felt hot. But I got over it. I walked about a minute after the first 2 miles. I think it ruined me.

When I got to about 2.5, I was really trying to scrape together the mental strength to keep going. And when I say "scrape," we're talking bottom of the barrel here, folks.

I hit a wall. I could not summon the will to keep going. I was very very tempted to shortcut it home. BUT, I resisted. I figured being faced with the task of walking all the way home might just be push enough to get going again. I did eventually get going again and I ran another 1/2 mile. M finally caught up to me. I told him to go ahead, that I was walking home. He offered his bike. I said "no. this is what happens when I don't run. I get to walk home."

Well. That only lasted until I hit gravel. I did NOT want to hear the slow crunch of my feet walking over it, so I decided to run. I ran all the way to my street. I figure my total run was about 3.25 mi. Not what I set out to do, but I pushed through and did it nonetheless.

I was hot, tired, worried about sunburn and heatstroke, belching up cereal, and had to pee. Not exactly ideal running conditions.

BUT, I ran over 15 miles this week.

NEXT TIME I do 4 miles, I'm just going to do my normal 2 mile route twice. When I spread it out and have too many turns (like today), it's just too much for my head to wrap around, so I get overwhelmed. At least that's my theory. Well, that, and the cereal, heat and bladder issues.