Because we switched plans from a Sunday-as-the-first-day-of-the-week plan to a Sunday-as-the-last-day one, I must have got it into my head we were in week 5 of the Galloway plan when we were actually finishing up week 4. The difference is between 6-7 miles and 7-8 miles. This jived with my feeling that we were behind because of the holiday week, so I thought 7 miles was the minimum we had to go yesterday. It was the warmest, most pleasant running day we've had since we started this program, so I was pretty excited rather than nervous about the day's run.

But here's the wierd part. I crapped out somewhere in my second mile and never got my wind back. We ended up walking for more than half of the 7 miles, which is kind of humiliating considering we did more than three miles of intervals easily just a few days before. And I was lightheaded and exhausted enough even after walking that far that you woulda thought I must have sprinted those seven miles.

Possible factors that contributed to my performance short-circuit:

1. Running too fast over the first few miles? Maybe I got excited about the long run and didn't keep the same pace that I had demonstrated on my weekday runs. There were a number of steeper hills in those first few miles, and maybe running up those without slowing zapped more energy than I would expect. And regardless of the pacing, it's also possible that we tried to increase the running-to-walking ratio too hastily during the week, or at least we were too quick in applying it to our longer run.

2. Mentally psyched myself out? Was some part of me so intimidated by the seven miles that my body just wasn't regulating my adrenaline in a heathy manner? Or did this contribute to my

3. Not enough sleep the nights before? I don't think I was sleeping excessively poorly in the nights between my last good run and Sunday. But I know I didn't get more than five hours a night. But I slept well Sunday night...

4. Not regulating food properly? I ate a healthy breakfast about three hours before the run. That the 7 miles of mostly walking took about two hours meant that by the time I finished it had been five hours since I'd eaten, which is far too long I'm guessing. We were both very hungry and thirsty by the end of it. As we first started walking, we talked about at what distances we'd need to start carrying energy-bars or even water. Maybe we found that out yesterday.

So I need to be smarter about this. I'm in uncharted territory with my body being older and my runs being longer than they've ever been in my life.

Filed under Carrboro Area, Journal, Marathon
Comments: Discuss this entry at LiveJournal

Posted by: nancy at January 9, 2006 2:32 PM

Posted by: alex at January 9, 2006 6:28 PM