Burn Out Too

Day 43
8 miles at 9:57/mile pace

So funny that when I checked the blog, there was Hillary's entry with the same title I was going to use.

Yeah, I've reached burned out point as well. I'm not eating very well (as in, hardly at all because my appetite is gone) and I'm tired. Yesterday, I took like three catnaps. I couldn't keep my eyes open. It's like I look at some people and they exercise an hour or more a day and don't seem to have a problem. And others of us can hardly keep it up for two months. Isn't the recommendation to get an hour of exercise a day? I wonder if Christina feels the same way because it could be the age of Hillary and my babies that are keeping us down. Especially since Hillary is still breastfeeding. Christina, how are you feeling?

So, yeah, with that being said, today's run kinda sucked. Like big time. We left at 6 am and I had a new route all mapped out from my house. It took a lot of effort to find 8 miles, but with some creativity, I did it. But, I forgot all about water. I figured we'd be okay and left two bottles where we looped around at the top of the street at about 6.5 miles.

Within the first quarter of mile, I knew I was in trouble. My mouth was SO dry I could hardly muster the energy to keep going. Every step it was like "need water. Need water." I ran through some sprinklers hoping that by cooling down, I could make it. I don't know what I was thinking, though. We were only at mile 2 and 6.5 miles was a ways off. The weather was also really humid too. How do those Texans and southerners do it?

We started at the top of Water Wheel and then ran down to Village. Then took Village to Bayshore. It was finally at Bayshore that I gave in and tried to drink the water from the church sprinklers. I couldn't catch the water and the spray was too powerful to sip from, so I barely got any, but at least it was something.

Then my mouth dried up again. Christina reminded me there were drinking fountains at the clubhouse, to which we were headed, and so that gave me a little spring in my step. We made it there, but the drinking fountain wasn't working. There were sinks on the other side of the bathroom that we scooped water from. It was nasty tasting, but, at least it was wet.

We headed over to Delgado and then down by the townhomes, needing even more water every step I took. We continued down through the Ivory development. We had hit 5 miles by then, and I could hardly take another step. It was so hard, so I slowed down. We came up to the highway and then down to our neighborhood. We ran around, but I had to have more water, so I tried to scoop more water again at the church sprinklers. It was about as successful as the first time. I cut through the parking lot to meet Christina at the street and then I was done. I couldn't run another step. I told Christina I had to walk the rest of the mile (about .15). So we walked. And then we ran to the top of Water Wheel where I had set out our measly bottles of water. We ended up walking all the way over to the street where you turn to get to the clubhouse. Then Christina convinced me to at least run to the bridge. We ran to the bridge and, though I was no longer thirsty, I was wasted. We ended up walking through the parking lot. We started running down the parkway and into the neighborhood. We circled the small block on Water Wheel, and FINALLY hit 8 miles.

It was such a miserable run because I was SO aware of where we were every step of the way. Though I check my watch all the time, I'm usually not paying attention to how far we've gone, or how much longer we have, until the last two miles. But today, I knew every step of the way. And that made the run feel like three hours.

Also, I totally overdid it yesterday. I swam, did an incredibly hard track workout, and then biked. I wasn't going to bike but I had to get out of the house. I figured I'd just do one loop of the triathlon course so I could get a feel for it and let you guys know any potential pitfalls. As I was coming up by the school, I noticed my tire was flat. I don't know if it had happened just then or if I had been riding on a flat tire for a while (I'm hoping that latter so I can blame my dismal time on that), but I ended up having to walk my bike the mile home. I ate very little for breakfast and hardly any lunch or dinner. Certainly not enough to sustain energy for all three activities, plus running after a four year old and an 8 month old, plus clean the house. And I didn't drink nearly enough water, which probably added to my problem this morning.

And to make myself feel better, I treated myself to an icee and chocolate Hostess cupcakes at 10 pm. I'm sure that helped too. I usually weigh myself before I head out and then again when I get home so I know how much "water" weight I lost so I can make sure to drink up. Today, I lost 2 POUNDS. That is A LOT of water weight to lose. And then drink back up.

So yeah, today sucked. But only the last three miles. Here were our splits:

Mile 1: 9:52
Mile 2: 9:48
Mile 3: 9:45
Mile 4: 9:53
Mile 5: 9:54
Mile 6: 12:20
Mile 7: 15:14
Mile 8: 11:23

We did AWESOME the first 5 miles. And then I crashed. I was even thinking during mile 4 or 5 that I could do the half in under 10 minute miles. Yeah. I think I was verging on very dehydrated and delusional.

The point of this blog was to track where we were having problems, and so next time--because there will be one, right girls? :)--we know what to do differently. Definitely, we need another rest day in there. It was a man who came up with the training schedule and I'm sure he didn't take into account having children. Or being at-home moms.

It's a learning process, but I'm so glad we're almost done.