Now that's more like it. Solid 13-miler today, no walking, good pace, even picked it up the last four miles on an EXTREMELY hilly course. Only three miles run at more than 10:00 pace, all of those on the big hills, and none slower than 10:30.
Which tells me two things: Poor nutrition has been part of my problem, as well as the legs just needed a break after five weeks of continually mounting mileage. Weather was not much help today (75 and humid pretty much throughout), but it didn't clobber me like it did last week, even with a less than satisfactory sleep last night (I don't sleep well anyway, but particularly it seems when I'm going to be getting up at 4 a.m. to run). So weather didn't bother me, lack of sleep didn't hamper me, but lack of fuel in the tank and tired muscles did.
So now for a recovery bar, a shower, a nap, then get up and get ready to drive to Fayetteville. One more reason for the nap: I'll probably get back from Fayetteville around 1:30 or 2 a.m., which makes this a 22-hour day. Good thing I don't have to work Monday. I'll need most of that day to do the laundry and other things I won't get to today or Sunday.
Oh, one more thing: Today pushes me over the 200-mile mark for this month, which I'm pretty sure is a PR for me (even counting high school track, for which I did very little base training; that's probably why I was so mediocre. Oh, if I'd known then...). | 