I mentioned yesterday that I am not ordinarily a morning runner. My favorite time to run is early evening. There's nothing better than knowing that this run is the last hard thing I need to do for the day, and after that, it's all hot showers and relaxation and fun. Plus I've been eating all day and my blood is full of sugar, leading me to feel KICK ASS when I run at night.
BUT.. 99% of races are in the morning. And since I'm currently slightly funemployed (interviewing for residency programs for next year) and I don't have anywhere to be in the mornings, I figure I should try to make it a habit. Plus, I mean, everything's prettier in the morning.
So this morning I headed out around 8:30am for an easy 5 miler. Before breakfast.
It sucked balls.
I honestly wanted to quit at about mile 0.02. My legs were tree stumps, I was running through quicksand, hills felt like mountains, downhills felt like uphills, you get the picture.
I live towards the top of a gradual but reasonably hefty hill, so unless I'm running up to the reservoir near my house, I'm ALWAYS slogging uphill the last 1.5 miles back to my house. Today was a 2.5 mile out and back route with a solid hill in the middle miles, so although I knew the hill home was coming, I really underestimated how much of a pain in the ass it'd be.
My easy pace is usually 9:50-10:00ish, and today 9:55s were a slap in the face. My splits were pretty consistent for the first 4 miles - 9:54/9:53/9:52/9:43 - and then mile 5 was 10:20 and I felt like I was DYING. It was a battle just to keep myself from stopping. I can't remember the last time I felt this bad on an easy 5 miler. My watch beeped 5 and I almost cried with relief.
I wonder, if I ran this exact route at 6pm today instead of this morning before breakfast, how different I would've felt. Or if I had eaten breakfast and then waited until 9ish and gone out with some sort of sugar power in my veins. I never really think of 3-5 milers as anything I would need to "fuel" for, but maybe I'm underestimating the power of food in my life?
(On the plus side, I'm down 3 lbs since Halloween! Water weight, I love you. You're so motivating.)
It sucked balls.
I honestly wanted to quit at about mile 0.02. My legs were tree stumps, I was running through quicksand, hills felt like mountains, downhills felt like uphills, you get the picture.
I live towards the top of a gradual but reasonably hefty hill, so unless I'm running up to the reservoir near my house, I'm ALWAYS slogging uphill the last 1.5 miles back to my house. Today was a 2.5 mile out and back route with a solid hill in the middle miles, so although I knew the hill home was coming, I really underestimated how much of a pain in the ass it'd be.
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| Pittsburgh, just give me ONE flat-ish 5 mile loop. Is that too much to ask? |
My easy pace is usually 9:50-10:00ish, and today 9:55s were a slap in the face. My splits were pretty consistent for the first 4 miles - 9:54/9:53/9:52/9:43 - and then mile 5 was 10:20 and I felt like I was DYING. It was a battle just to keep myself from stopping. I can't remember the last time I felt this bad on an easy 5 miler. My watch beeped 5 and I almost cried with relief.
I wonder, if I ran this exact route at 6pm today instead of this morning before breakfast, how different I would've felt. Or if I had eaten breakfast and then waited until 9ish and gone out with some sort of sugar power in my veins. I never really think of 3-5 milers as anything I would need to "fuel" for, but maybe I'm underestimating the power of food in my life?
(On the plus side, I'm down 3 lbs since Halloween! Water weight, I love you. You're so motivating.)
I start work at the butt crack of dawn so I am an afternoon runner during the week. I always do my long runs early just to simulate the race. Plus running in the hottest weather of the day usually makes me feel awesome once it's cooler!
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