Not So GR8

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Ever have one of those runs where the entire time you're thinking to yourself "I really shouldn't be running?"

I totally had one of those last night.

My marathon training plan called for 8 miles at a 9:30 pace for Monday. I decided that after running a new PR in a half marathon the day before I'd take Monday off and run on Tuesday. When I got home from work on Tuesday I tried to pump myself up by putting on my running clothes and flexing in the mirror.

But my Garmin was having issues finding a satellite. My knees felt achy. The side of my big toe on my right foot hurt. My chest felt like an elephant was sitting on it. I forgot to put on chapstick and my lips felt like gummy sandpaper. My legs felt like they were made of lead.

I could not wait to be done with this run.

Also, I think I hit traffic at almost every intersection. I'm not sure I ran one uninterrupted mile the entire time. Not only did that screw with my times, it also made it difficult to find a pace and settle in. Just when I thought I might be breaking through the blahness of the run I'd have to stop for cars.

Plus, I decided not to run with music since I'd be running alone and it would be getting dark before I got home. Listening to myself struggle to breathe and having not much to distract me from the random aches and pains didn't help matters either.

And here's a question. Have you ever run your regular running route backwards? Normally on this route I only go east on Thomas St. Last night I double-backed that way so that I went west. A street looks entirely different when you're running the opposite direction! I kept having to slow down to glance at street signs to make sure I wasn't totally lost.

Still, I did the entire 8 miles even though it wasn't as fast as I would have liked. I just kept telling myself that this was the last weeknight 8 miler I had to run and I wasn't going to cut it short.

Although, honestly, it was one of those runs where the entire time I was thinking "Two days ago I ran how far how fast??? Why does this feel so horrible right now?" A smidge of over training perhaps? I think I'd better get some more sleep before Saturday.

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Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 625 ft Location: Forest Park, IL Elev. Gain: +3 ft Date: 09/14/10 Up/Downhill: [+42/-39] Time: 06:06 PM Difficulty: 2.3 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 8.20 miles Time: 1:23:13 Speed: 5.9 mph Pace: 10' 09 /mi Calories: 970 Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 55 -0' 14 6.0 +0.1 +6 ft 2 10' 16 +0' 07 5.8 -0.1 +6 ft 3 9' 38 -0' 31 6.2 +0.3 -6 ft 4 9' 45 -0' 24 6.2 +0.2 -3 ft 5 10' 13 +0' 04 5.9 -0.0 +6 ft 6 9' 45 -0' 24 6.2 +0.2 +3 ft 7 11' 05 +0' 56 5.4 -0.5 -6 ft 8 10' 14 +0' 05 5.9 -0.1 -6 ft end 9' 43 -0' 26 6.2 +0.3 +3 ft Versus average of 10' 09 min/mile

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