I guess ...

... from a scientific perspective Saturday's run was a success


Training Stats:

Thu - 50 min elliptical and 10 min treadmill cool down
Fri - Chasing hawk friend 3o min (see pics below)
Sat - Run / walk, half marathon distance :-/

Unfortunately I am not a scientist, so yesterday's run pretty much sucked.  I just can't get myself to say, "Even though I didn't get the results I wanted or expected I learned something so I can say it was successful."

My heart rate began to race shortly after we headed up the first hill.  There was a pretty substantial headwind, and my heart rate and breathing both suffer under those circumstances ... Whatever.  My legs went absolutely rubbery around the 13k mark while heading up hill #3 and never really recovered.  But really the worst dagger to my pride was we ended our run less than 1k short of the goal distance (our own personal sag wagon picked us sp, burritos from the local market waiting for us) and we were nearly 30 min slower than what I was hoping for, even though we hit the first 3.5k faster than any other week :-(

In hind sight there were some positive results from the debacle.  Despite the fact that we walked more than half the total distance and up every hill (and down 1) we stayed ahead of pace until after the halfway point.  Even though my legs felt wiped out I was able to keep a relatively brisk walking pace.  And maybe the most encouraging point was my legs recovered very quickly.  After my recovery burrito and a nap I felt pretty darn good.  In fact my legs feel better today than they did at the beginning of the run yesterday.

I guess what still bugs me is not knowing for sure why it happened.  Maybe I was just too amped up for the distance ... Or possibly the events of a long and arduous week at work finally caught up with me. 

I may have been on the verge of dehydration.  I know when Pam picked us up I couldn't get enough water fast enough, and once I got some water in me I started feeling better.  Probably having sushi for dinner and the obligatory 2.3 gallons of soy soy sauce that go with it for dinner Friday was probably not a good idea. 

In my hazy recollection of the not quite awake minutes after I got out of bed I may have taken a Sudafed.  Our grass was cut Friday, and that made my sinuses go funky, so I may have habitually taken one just because I was still feeling the residual allergy effects.  It also seems like every other house and half the parks and schools either had a lawn mower running or smelled like freshly cut grass.  These issues would explain the runaway pulse and the extra wheezing.

I worked harder during the week than I have in a long time.  Every day my legs were tired from some form of training.  I also had some trouble sleeping several nights this week - I figure it was due to the worse than average drama at work and swirling around Pam and her mom.  All these factors could account for the unusual tiredness and the rubbery legs.

Whatever the reason or combination of reasons I consider the run something just slightly better than a failure.  I am not looking for, nor would I be content with saying, "If it weren't for ..." (fill in the blank) I would have done great.  I need to be able to push through despite adversities.  If any, or all of these factors pop up on the big day I need to be able to function properly. 

At least I did not give up at 13k when things got really rough.  I walked, but I didn't quit ... that is a bright point in what was a really disappointing run.