Only Marathon Training

Can make you feel bad about running 7 miles.  Why is that?  Brie actually had a similar post about this recently, where she was supposed to be running 18 and managed 6.1.  I was trying for 15 today and managed 7.2.  Not even halfway there!  In truth, I know I had several things working against me, but when I think about what they are, they just sound like big excuses as to why I didn't do the full miles today. 

I'll go ahead and list off the big excuses anyway.  This is my blog and even though they sound like excuses now, I think they'll be helpful later on in recognizing what I did wrong and why I was probably overly ambitious on this run this morning. 

1.  Didn't get enough sleep.  I need to work on this in general.  Working late, eating dinner when I get home, wanting to watch TV and read my book before bed doesn't add up to an early enough bedtime.  Especially when my goal is to be running by 5 AM.

2.  Ran in Central Park.  Truthfully, I wanted to be up and at 'em pretty early and I figured the safest place to do that would be in the Park.  After going there this morning, I'm not entirely sure that's the case.  The lights were off in half of the Park and then they all turned off before it got light outside, so I'm not sure it really was the best place. 

3.  I ran 14 miles on Sunday and today is Wednesday.  I tried to justify this by saying that I would normally be doing a longer run (read 7-8 miles) on Wednesdays anyway.  What would be the big deal if I tacked on the same amount on the end of that?  Turns out I might need a day or two more to recover all the way from 14 miles. 

4.  I should never run laps.  Ever.  Running might be a mental game, but I excel at telling myself not to keep doing it when possible.  I know that I'm a bad lap runner.  So why would I purposely set myself up to run laps this morning?  I actually think I could have kept going, but I'm not sure it was in the best interest overall to get me to the finish line in Philadelphia.

So, obviously, today wasn't a winner.  I ran to the Park, ran one loop and ran home.  I keep telling myself over and over again that it's not a big deal.  That even though I'll most likely come up short on miles this week, it's not the end of the world.  It's one week.  I think I made the right decision in heading home when I did.  I was tired, my legs were tired and my toe hurt. 

I'm slightly worried about this toe thing.  I noticed it on Sunday on my long run, too.  There isn't a blister or a start of a blister.  There is actually a callus that doesn't seem to be doing its job and protecting my toe enough.  It's my big toe on my right foot.  I'm wondering if I wore a band-aid around my toe next time if that would be enough of a cushion?  If not, maybe some moleskin? 

Drew says I'm not allowed to wear my HR monitor for the next couple weeks, so that's annoying.  He's convinced I'll get a permanent scar from where it's been chafing.  I think I could live with that.  I guess he's probably right and I probably already will have a mark, but it's harder to judge my pace without my heart rate.  I knew that today was slow, which I was okay with, but it's good to have an idea of how slow! 

Drew also says that I shouldn't beat myself up over this run.  I know that's he's right and that if my goal for the week was 30 miles, I've still got 22.8 to go.  I don't think I'll make it there.  I think I'd be really happy if I got to 15 more this week.  I'm just hoping that tomorrow will be better.  That's really all I can do at this point. 

Running
Time: 1:20:00
Distance: 7.20 miles
Pace: 11:05/mile