A Bad Run, A Lesson Learned

My computers on the fritz, so its been awhile since I last posted a blog. In the past two weeks I've had some really good runs, a 9 mile run in 1:30:50 and a top ten pace run. This past Sunday though was no where near as good as these runs. The plan was to go 10 miles in 1:40:00, at a 10 minute pace, but in 1:28:29 I ran 7.74 miles at snails pace of 11.43 min/mi.

First off let me start with the excuses. Excuse one: it was hot as hell. The past couple of weeks have been off and on overcast, but now thats all past and we're back to clear Texas sky's. Which means burning hot sun and so much sweat you'd think I jumped in the river. Excuse two: lack of sleep. Before a long run you need to get plenty of sleep. I was running on less then 6 hours of sleep. Excuse three: Brushy Creek. I like Brushy Creek trail because of its size. It's 6.75 miles long. So you could go out and back once and do 13.5 miles, this is very good for distance running, but the trail is no Pflugerville Lake. Pflugerville Lake is flat and fast and good for the ego. Brushy Creek is hilly and truly test your endurance.

Ok now that I the excuses out of the way lets get down to business here. I failed this run because no matter what excuse I use I was over confident and burned myself out too soon. I started off at a 9 mile pace and didn't think to slow down because I felt good. I thought this will be easy, keep this pace up and I'll be golden. I should have remembered that every time I thought that I burned myself out. And burn out I did, around mile 4 I started to feel the strain. Between mile 4 and 5 was a set of steep hills that put me out for the count, reaching mile 5 was the longest part of my run. I had planned on doing a double out and back course, head out one direction comeback and go another direction and comeback. But when I was getting back to the starting point all I could think was I'm done this run is over.

Had I stopped I would've stopped with about 40 minutes left. Upon reaching the starting point I looked for my wife, since she had left before me I thought with that and the heat maybe she'd be there or almost there, but she was no where to be seen. Then it hit me, she didn't give up she's still out there running and if I'm supposed to be the more advanced runner what kind of example am I setting by quitting. So I kept going, slow as it was, til I met up with my wife. We finished the run together and hurried to the trail showers. If you don't know what these are they're pillars with shower heads on them that are by the trail. You can go up to them press down on the button and get sprayed with cold water, nothings better after a long run and why other trails don't have them I'll never understand.

Even though this run was a failure I did learn alot from it which is always good and I'm ready to try again for 10 miles. I would also like to thank my wife for inspiring me to keep on running.