There was as threat of rain Saturday morning for the group run. When I went outside I saw that it had rained on my car but it didn’t look like any more rain was coming in the near future. Even though our official Half Marathon training session is over, our pace group is still meeting on Saturdays to train for the Chicago Half Marathon. We decided to meet at 6:30 a.m. to get an early start on the day.
It wasn’t as hot on Saturday as it had been during the week but it was warm enough. Since the Air and Water show was this weekend, we decided to run South 3 miles and then turn back to the starting point and from there run 2 miles back and forth in another direction for a total of 10 miles. This all sounded good until I started to run. As hard as I try, my body does not like running in the heat. I was okay for the 3 miles out but around mile 4, I started to lose it. My legs felt like dead weight. It was so difficult to put one foot in front of the other. I ended up muddling through the 6 miles but I was disappointed that I didn’t make the 10 miles. Talk about a bad run. I didn’t know why I felt this bad. My body didn’t have any aches and pains. My stomach was not upset. I had something to eat before the run and was drinking water along the path. I even brought my own water bottle with me.
Having this analytical mind, I had to figure out what was wrong with this run. As I thought about it some more I realized what my problem was – WORK. I had such a mentally exhausting week at work that by the time Friday night arrived, I was totally spent. It was one of those nights where I wanted to eat an entire stuffed pizza and drink a bottle of wine while indulging in one of those mindless reality TV shows like the Bachelor Pad. Of course I didn’t do that. Again, running saved me from myself.
They say running is very mental and I totally get that now. I remember another time that I had a really bad run on Saturday and it had nothing to do with me physically but my head just wasn’t in the run. I just hope last week was one of those abnormal weeks at work and things will be calmer this week. I have really been trying to keep to the training schedule this time and I really hate when work sabotages my efforts. Hopefully next Saturday will yield a better run for me.
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