Because of the short week, I'm not feeling too guilty about my brain-dead-ness. My Sunday long run was just a mess, and it felt like I stumbled my way through the whole 3 hour exercise - started 2:04-ish and ended at 5-ish. The only good this is that I kept my heart rate between 65 and 75% during the entire affair.
I think the reason as to why it was a bad run is because I didn't eat well. Saturday night dinner comprised of Aunt Annie's organic macaroni and cheese, when it should have been a large plate of whole wheat spaghetti with meatballs. Sunday breakfast was PJ's omlette from PJ's Pancake House - yum ... which is a place that I have been going to ... probably even before I was born. It's a 5 minute walk from my parent's former restaurant named North China Restaurant now turned Karen's Corner, or something like that. In any case, I digress. I had the omlette at 9 AM, and didn't have anything else prior to my 2 PM run. As I started, I knew the food thing was going to be a problem, but I casually shoved it aside.
In addition to the food issues, it was and has been very cloudy, so Patrick (my Garmin Forerunner) was having problems picking up the GPS signal. It kicked in between 2 and 3 miles after I started, and it lost the signal 7 miles after it had picked up. Then it got dark and cold, really quickly. At 3:30ish I wasn't feeling too good by the way things were panning out, so I turned around hoping that I would get my goal distance (between 18 and 20 miles) in by running home. I was about 9 miles away from where I started.
Then it got REALLY dark and REALLY cold, and I started to feel the lactic acid circulating from my mid back all the way down to the back of my heals. I started to get scared, so I think I may have done a couple of intervals back to my start on the tow path ... which was four miles away.
I finally get there, and I decided to call it quits. Running home was really not an option, so I walked over to Au Bon Pain, and asked the cashier if I could use their phone.
Unfortunately, I was so cold that I did not have full control of my tongue and speaking clearly was a bit of a challenge. I think it was apparent that I was in a bit of trouble, so the manager lent me his cell phone, I called H (now turned Knight in my shiny Corolla), rescued me with an order of a banana and a Pumpkin Harvest Soup in a bread bowl, and drove us home.
First he reprimanded for sending him into a panic, then he admired me for my "toughness" (which I'm so not, it's really more of stubborness and being fixated on my training schedule), and he ended the evening by whining and threatened to tell on me ... to my Spin Girls.
Ugh, the only good part about the whole thing was the soup in a bread bowl. I know I cleared at least 16 miles if not 17, but I'm not sure if I got up to 18 ... though it wouldn't surprise if I did. Whatever, given the conditions, I think I will definitely be able to finish the marathon ... maybe with a slow recovery job / bouncy walk here and there.
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