Toxic mileage

Tox-ic Miles
/ˈtäksik mīlz /
noun
a run that is too short to build endurance, to slow to build aerobic or anaerobic capacity, not hilly enough to build eccentric resistance, then it is toxic


Yep that sound about right. That sums up today's run to end my 2nd week of half marathon training. My schedule this week was:


Sunday - 5k race
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 4mi EZ
Wednesday - Yoga
Thursday - 5mi EZ
Friday - Rest
Saturday - 4mi EZ

Sunday was supposed to be 7mi, but I had signed up for a race that day, so I skipped it. The beginning of this week went well. I competed all I was supposed to in the ranges I was supposed to. Which brings me to today. I have been lacking on sleep lately, and I went to sleep last night at around midnight. So when I woke up at my normal weekday time of 5:45am, I thought it'd be better if I just went back to sleep to catch up on some ZZZ's. This was mistake number 1. When I woke up again at 8:00, I felt completely un-rested, groggy, and heavy, like I had overslept. I felt fine when I wok up at 5:45, I should just gotten up and ran then. My second mistake, not eating or drinking anything before I ran.

By 8:30, it was already 81 degrees out. I had to force myself out the door. The heaviness and grogginess was very present on my run. My breathing was sooooo out of control and my HR was through the rough! Near the beginning of my run, I dropped my phone, which is my GPS (I really, really need to get a watch), I dropped my phone. i picked it up and made sure it wasn't damaged, and continued to run. At some point a while later, I looked down to see how close to ending the torture run I was, when I noticed I'd apparently only gone .43mi (I'm assuming when I dropped my phone the GPS stopped) and the pace for the .43mi was 11:09/mi. Are you kidding me? That was the final straw. I threw in the towel right then and there and turn around and ran home.  I was supposed to do 4 miles today, but I have no clue how many I did. I'm positive I didn't make the full 4, but I definitely went more than .43mi. How can run 2:30/mi slower than my race pace feel so. excruciatingly. difficult? It is days like this that makes me wonder why in the hell-o kitty I run. On the hopefully flip side, usually after a disastrous run like this, I usually have a great run the next day which is good because I have a 9mi long run tomorrow.









Have you had a disastrous run recently?
How did you get back on your feet?

2 comments:

  1. For every 5 degrees above 60 you will need to run 15-30 seconds slower per mile to not over heat and feel awful. While one can generally still do a pretty normal pace for a couple of miles in the heat by two miles it starts to affect you quite a bit. Combine that with the sleep issue and it sounds pretty normal. Don't know if you have been doing any running in the heat as yet but it takes about 2 weeks of consistent running in the heat to acclimate and even then you still have to cut the pace.

    Keep on running!

    Http://runnersmania.blogspot .com

    Russ

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  2. Hi! Found you via running bloggers!
    Oh yes, we have those crappy running days, tomorrow will be better.
    Have you seen this... http://www.usatf.org/routes/map/. I have a $10 Target watch that has a stopwatch on it. I map out my run before I head out then start my timer. I've been running my routes long enough that I have them all memorized as well as my splits when I get to them, but that may help with the phone issue!
    Keep it up!!!!!

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