Not Feeling It.....

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The last week has not been good on the running front.  There are many reasons for this I know, but none of them make me feel any better about it.  I have not yet, since Monday run in the morning before work, and every other normal week I am up and running before work or church at least 6 days.

This past weekend my wife and I made a trip to Indiana (from Atlanta).  The trip comprised of a total of 24 hours of driving, three nights of between 4-5 very uncomfortable hours of sleep.  OK, the third night was back home and was much more comfortable, but was still only 5 hours.

Went out for a 10 miler...... then quit

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I had the day off today and really wanted/needed to sleep in because of what the weekend has planned for me. For this reason I decided to put my 10 mile run off till early afternoon.

This gave me the opportunity to get up when I was good and ready and have a nice breakfast with my wife and kids (they are off school today as well) Payton, my daughter that runs Cross Country, was leaving at 1:00 to head to an out of state meet tomorrow so I figured I would eat lunch and then take her to the school before my run. This would give my body a chance to digest the food and I would be ready to run when I got back home.

This is when things started to go wrong. I got back home and ready to run about 2:00. I had been hydrating all morning so I knew I would be well hydrated for my run, but I only had one bottle of Gatorade left and needed to save that for Sunday's 20+ miler.

The temperature wasn't too bad at 81 degrees, and the humidity wasn't too bad at 72%, but the part that concerned me was the sun. The sun was out in full force, and I don't do well running in the direct sun for too long. The last time I cut a longer run short was because of the sun. I train almost 100% of the time in the early morning with an occasional evening run, but almost never in the middle of the day when the sun is so hot.

The run started off pretty good and I eased into it with a slower first mile like I always do. I had taken two bottles of water with me because I knew the sun would be taking it all out of me. I started to sip at the water about 1.5 miles and things were still going pretty good. At about 3 miles I was getting close to the end of my first bottle of water trying to fend off how badly I was starting to feel. I was starting to feel pretty lousy. I knew it wasn't a hydration issue but was really starting to wonder about the lack of electrolytes and the hot sun.

My legs were getting heavier with each step and I was nearing the longest/biggest hill of my run. I was also running on the busiest road I run on, and it doesn't have a sidewalk so I am running right on the white line. The sweat was pouring into my eyes and it was stinging and making me dizzy. I knew this wasn't a good combination with how close I was running to the traffic so I decided I needed to get over on the grass. The grass is very uneven and I was worried about twisting an ankle so I decided to walk for a little bit.

Walking for even that little bit did me in. I was not able to get myself going again. By the time I reached the top of the hill, try as I might, I couldn't get myself running for more than a couple hundred yards at a time. My legs felt weaker than they have in months of training.... including all my long runs up to 20 miles.

I decided to cut out a 2 mile loop and attack the 4 miles I had left to get home. I ended up run/walking the rest of the way home feeling completely defeated. It has been a long time since I have had to cut a run short or walk this much during a run.

Link to my running log to see the way my run went in numbers.

What do you do to keep for falling into the same trap I did?

Tim Wilson - blog.262quest.com - subscribe - follow - virtual4now

Starting to feel better

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I am starting to feel a little better following my last post of lack of energy. I have still been working almost every waking hour, but have been resting and sleeping a little later. It is absolutely killing me to not be running though :)

I did get out for 1 mile on Saturday with my daughter, and then another 1.25 walk/run with my son. I can't let these times go. :)

I will probably get out and do a couple miles a couple times in the next few days, however I am not going to be able to run this coming Saturday as we are taking a road trip to Savanna, GA. My wife's brother is stationed there while he is getting ready to go back to Iraq, and this Saturday is when he gets released for his last few days of freedom before he gets shipped out in the next few weeks. This is his second tour of duty in Iraq, the first time was when the war started. His wife and kids are coming down from Indiana Friday and we are making the journey to Savanna Saturday morning.

Well, enough for today. Got to get to work - still a lot of work on my projects, although it is going good. Hopefully I will be back to where I was running in the next couple weeks. :)

Lack of Energy

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This is cross posted on my other blog at blog.2big.org

No, I am not making the statement because I am confused why, I am making the statement just because I am tired. I have a terrible lack of energy.

This morning I was at the gym and just couldn't seem to get much done. I started to lift my normal routine and just couldn't seem to get through it. I finally gave up and went and walked on the treadmill to try to awaken my body. I went back to the weights and after just one more set gave up and came home.

This week my runs have also been tiresome with lack of energy as well. I originally figured that I was seeing the results of pushing my body so hard in my half marathon this past week, but figured that would be subsiding by now.

Like I said, it is no surprise that I have no energy. I have been getting up and 4:05 AM each morning, running or working out, going to work and working 9 and 10 hour days, coming home, taking care of some household business (running the kids here or there) and then working 2 - 4 more hours before going to bed between 10:30 and 11:00. All to do it all over the next day.

Now, many of you might laugh at me and say "You call that work?" I am an Application Developer so yes, work for me is sitting in front of the computer all day. Not much of a physical activity, but unless you have worked in front of the computer all day, you would never understand how physically draining it is. I am sure the mental part of it is what drains you physically, but it is tiring none the less.

I have a hugh project that is coming due, that I have a lot of work left on. I had a mini due date this past Tuesday, then another bigger due date today. I have one of the main due dates on Monday which is going to be tough, and then it is roll out of the application from there. All while continuing to work on back end stuff. To say the least I am stressed.

To add to all this, I think my body is reacting from a weight loss standpoint. I have not seen any weight loss over the past couple weeks while I have been going through all this. I am not eating as good as I could be, but I am not eating bad enough that I shouldn't be losing weight either. I think it is my body just telling me that I am not getting enough rest. I wish I could respond to it and give it the rest it needs, but it will have to wait till after these deadlines.