8 x 1000M Fail

4 mile w/u
Target: 8x1k w/Caitlin et al
Actual: 3:24, drop out
5 mile c/d
Total: 10.5 miles

This was a fail of epic proportions. I awoke at the ungodly hour of 5:10am so I could depart my house at 5:45 and rendezvous with Caitlin, Spada, Billy and Eric at the Dilworth Speed Loop. I even dragged a bleary-eyed Jordan, who finally returned from his week-long trip to California, along with me.

As for the workout itself, there's really not much to say. From the first step of the first interval I could tell it wasn't going to be my day. When I fell off the back of the group a mere 400 meters into the second repeat, I stopped in my tracks and decided to call it a day. Instead of lingering around with the group and further augmenting my embarrassment, I turned on my heels and ran back home with Jordan. We took the long way, remaining mostly silent after I spent a solid 10 minutes venting my frustrations, and for the final mile and a half I was so dejected that I slowed to a crawl and allowed Jordan to pull ahead by himself. I was not in my happy place.

Though I'm obviously frustrated about how today's attempted workout panned out, I'm even more discouraged about how I've been feeling over the past few months as a whole. To be sure, the relentless summer weather and my constant travel schedule aren't doing me any favors, but I'm not buying either of those as legitimate reasons for not being able to recall the last time I felt truly fresh and inspired on a run. My mileage is slightly higher this summer than it has been in previous years (80-90 on average as opposed to 70-75 the past two years), but good grief I'm not trying to do 130 miles a week here. Plenty of runners at my level are running just as high if not higher mileage without their bodies putting up a fuss about it. As for me, I can't seem to string together more than a few months of high quality, pain free running without something going wrong.

Jordan thinks it's mental. He thinks I'm burned out and in need of a bigger break than my recent "down" weeks have provided. I can understand why he says that, but to be honest I don't really agree. Very rarely do I wake up dreading a run or wishing I didn't have to put in the miles, and I always head out the door with the sincere objective of leveraging my training on that day--including all the core, strengthening exercises, stretching and drills I do on a daily basis but try not to bore you with on this blog--into tangible long-term fitness gains. I want to work hard and I want to be a better runner, and in return I don't think it's too much to ask for a little bit of cooperation from my body.

Did this post turn into a disgruntled rant? Why yes, yes it did. Sorry about that. I promise the next time I write it will all be sunshine and midgets and peanut butter. As Caitlin and I have discussed before, after each workout you should be allowed five emotional minutes to experience whatever emotion you're feeling at the time, but then you have to move on with your day. This took a little bit longer than five minutes to write but hopefully you'll let it slide.