Thursday, July 12, 2012

Struggling to Finish

In my younger, pre-child days, I used to love the heat. I would happily lace up my running shoes and hit the pavement at mid-day in search of a good sweat. Oh how I long for those days.

Lately it's been in the mid 80s by early morning when I start my runs. I stupidly dress in a cotton t-shirt (I'm changing that) and barely make it to the finish...sometimes I just cut my run short. It's frustrating. Especially since I've just started my marathon training. If I can't make it to 10 miles, how on EARTH am I going to log 26.2?!

On my run yesterday, I had a goal of 10. (The plan said 13, but I jumped into the plan without carefully assessing it, so I was tailoring it a bit.) We started off doing the first 5 miles on a nice shady trail. The temp wasn't terrible, but the humidity left us running in a cloud. I was drenched by mile 2. Miles 3 and 4 were on a trail full of larger rocks and muddy pits (it had POURED the night prior). It took every bit of effort to just finish that trail, but I did it and our mile splits were right on track....

Then we stopped for Weasel to take a potty break and drink some water. That's where it got ugly. Just starting to run again was painful. I'm not even sure how many times I stopped to take walking breaks! At mile 6.5, we passed our vehicles. It took an act of God to keep me from turning left and calling it a day, but we just kept running. We made the loop and arrived back at the cars at mile 9. I quit right then and there. I couldn't fathom running yet another mile. I was ANGRY with MYSELF.

But then I came home, stripped off my clothes that looked as if I had been swimming in them, and cooled down. It's just one run of many. There will be so many more that I can't let this one be the defining event of my training. I will switch to more breathable material. I will slow my pace at the beginning in hopes of maintaining my endurance to the end. I will NOT give up.

This is just my way of venting, so thanks for letting me do just that. Hope your training is going better:)