No Fuel to begin with
hmmm… remember how I said that sometimes your body seems to be a machine ready to tear up the road like well tuned car? Although that may be true, the inverse is also true. Sometime, you go out for a morning drive and you the engine starts knocking, the engine overheats, smoke comes out of the hood and then the motor just stops.
That’s what happened today. I didn’t plan on running today, but I felt so good after yesterdays run, I felt like I had another 6 miles in me and wanted to get them out.
It may have been true yesterday, but I managed to spend the energy somewhere without realizing it.
Mentally, I began running with the intent of running a fast 4 miles. I ran the 1st mile in 8:00 minutes. But then I blew my gasket and was unable to continue. I tried to trudge along for another half mile.
In distance running you learn that sometimes you during your run you have peaks and valleys. As long as you continue moving forward, you can come out of the valley and continue your run (many times at a pleasant pace). But, alas, this was not one of those days.
Today, I had to just stop and come home. There was nothing left in my gas tanks (mental or physical). So instead of risking some type of injury, I called it a day.
See? Sometimes you just have to listen to your body. No matter how foolish of a runner you are, never underestimate what your body is trying to tell you. Sure you can push it past it’s comfort zone in the name of training. But you also have to know when it’s wise to listen to its objections, lest you find yourself with a mutiny on your…er.. um…hands.
February 13th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
I think it was the 8 min pace that killed you. If I start off a run at a fast pace, I burn my reserves a lot more quickly than if I had run at a more comfortable pace, then I can run for almost forever. But that is the thing, finding the fine line of pushing your body to it’s proper limits so that your time improves and not going overboard.