Rocky Road

Today was terrrrrrrrrrible. I knew it would be. I wasn't planning on doing my long run today but my plans changed so today was the day. I certainly didn't plan on doing it the day after 120 box jumps, 80 wall ball squats, 400 ft of walking lunges with a 10 lb plate over my head, and 40 handstand pushups. That's not really how you prep for a long run. Also, my dinner of red wine and chocolate cake didn't help either.

I went out late, I don't think I even left the house until 11:30. I stopped at the Paperback to use the bathroom and ended up talking to the owner (who I know from Cross Fit) for a while. He's a super nice guy. He's lost a ton of weight since joining CF. He said I looked leaner just from a few weeks ago. That was nice of him. He's planning on going to the Tough Mudder, even if registration is filled he's going to go to hang out with the team. Awesome. It really is a little family over there.

So by the time I actually started running it was close to 1 pm. Not great for the day I chose to do 10 miles. I always say that I know how a run is going to go in the first 2 minutes. I knew it was going to go terrible. Terrible. I didn't have a thing in me and I knew it. I forced out the first 2 miles at my regular pace and then I felt the dreaded bonk coming on. I walked for awhile and I gave myself a pep talk. Here's what I said:

1. You didn't drive 25 minutes here on a Saturday to blow this off
2. You could have gone to the mall if you weren't going to run but you said you'd get your long run in today
3. Get it in today because there's no way you'll want to do it tomorrow if you quit now
4. Don't blame Cross Fit. Don't blame the wind. Don't blame too much time on the treadmill. Runs are hard. Don't act surprised.
5. Do what you have to do but you're not cutting this run a single inch short

My inner voice can be a real taskmaster! I guess that's a good thing though. I remembered completely blowing a long run about 6 weeks before the marathon and I was all freaked out about it. Turns out, it was a great thing to have happened because, in my mind, it got a real stinker out of the way. I think everyone should blow a run. Completely f*&@ing blow a run. I mean, to the point where if someone passed you on the road that you know bend over and pretend to tie your shoes because you're so freaking embarrassed by how badly you're doing. Everyone should have that experience because when you do it makes you more determined for it not to happen again.

We're not machines, we're humans. If I could control how I perform for every single run I'd be a professional. Bad runs happen and I'm glad I got this one out of the way. The upside is that I plan on doing this long run sequence (8, 9, 10) again before peaking out before the NYC Half and I can only improve from here. Hopefully dropping back to 8 miles next week for my long run will give me a boost of confidence and I can work a little on pace again.

NOW...onto WAY more important stuff. The NYC Marathon is not called the Greatest Marathon in the World for no good reason. Today I got a gorgeous, glossy, Official 2010 results magazine. It's loaded with pictures and articles and, of course, the official results for all the finishers. So, because it never gets old to me, I looked up my results and then Jared's to see how many pages I was ahead of him. I had to look up results online first and when I went to that section in the book, guess what? NO JARED!



Conspiracy! Conspiracy! Was he so shamed by my underdog victory that he had his name pulled? Oh, Jared. You will forever be my marathon nemesis!