Monotony and the Wall
My half-marathon training had been going very well up until this weekend. I've been steadily increasing my weekly mileage and was up to 10 miles on my long run last weekend. I was beginning to think that my first marathon might even happen in the next year. Then the running gods put me back in my place.
Friday I set a new personal record for monotonous workouts when I ran 8 miles on the track inside the Student Rec Center on campus. 8 miles is somewhere around 35 laps on this less-than-a-quarter-mile track. My iPod did a wonderful job of keeping my from going insane as I went around and around again. I was still feeling good, if just a tad bored from staring at cinder blocks for almost an hour and a half.
This morning I went out for my long run. 12 miles was the goal. I knew last night when it was still warm and muggy at 10pm that it wasn't going to be fun, but I was not prepared for the miserable consitions this morning. I made it to campus and was running by 5:45am. Even with the early start the heat had wiped me out by mile 6. I made a second loop around campus, but called it quits at 10.5 miles. I had run out of water and didn't think Lidia would appreciate me running myself into the ground since we had a photo sitting at 10am at Sears. Other runners were dropping out and ducking into buildings looking for water fountains as I was packing up as well. It seems that few of us were ready for a September weather workout.
So I've been beaten down and humbled. I'll do my 13.1 in January and not even think about 26.2 again until after I've crossed the finish line.
Friday I set a new personal record for monotonous workouts when I ran 8 miles on the track inside the Student Rec Center on campus. 8 miles is somewhere around 35 laps on this less-than-a-quarter-mile track. My iPod did a wonderful job of keeping my from going insane as I went around and around again. I was still feeling good, if just a tad bored from staring at cinder blocks for almost an hour and a half.
This morning I went out for my long run. 12 miles was the goal. I knew last night when it was still warm and muggy at 10pm that it wasn't going to be fun, but I was not prepared for the miserable consitions this morning. I made it to campus and was running by 5:45am. Even with the early start the heat had wiped me out by mile 6. I made a second loop around campus, but called it quits at 10.5 miles. I had run out of water and didn't think Lidia would appreciate me running myself into the ground since we had a photo sitting at 10am at Sears. Other runners were dropping out and ducking into buildings looking for water fountains as I was packing up as well. It seems that few of us were ready for a September weather workout.
So I've been beaten down and humbled. I'll do my 13.1 in January and not even think about 26.2 again until after I've crossed the finish line.
Labels: running
posted by Timmie Smith at 4:22 PM
2 Comments:
I am utterly amazed that you actually ran that far on a track. I don't have it in me to run in that many circles. :) Kudos to you.
Timmie, you are a Man among Men. I don't think I could get Bubba up that early to go running.
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