Whoa, not what i needed

to start, i never blogged about this past wednesday's run. nothing special. 6 miles of intense hills, 1 minute and 14 seconds faster than last week doing the same run. i had talked to the inspirationalizer on the phone and headed out for the run around 8pm. it was cold and dark. i don't like these cold night runs, it seems like i cough for 2 days after the run from breathing in the cold air. however, i felt pretty good about this run.

i had open house planned for saturday evening so i was planning my long run of the week for sunday. then my cousin said he could help on the house sunday afternoon, need to get a lot of work done, so there went the run. i was planning on doing the run monday afternoon, then my cousin said he could help work on the house monday afternoon and i had to be recovered by 5pm. i headed out for the run at 12pm. it was supposed to be cloudy and 71 degrees (another reason i pushed the run back since sunday was supposed to be sunny and i hate running in the sun). too bad. it was very sunny on monday too, very little clouds, and 73 degrees. i actually got more sun than i have in a long time, my arms show it. i was planning on running 18 miles. i finished a very disappointing 13.5 miles way off the pace of my last half marathon. i am not sure what caused this (probably lack of good conditioning) but i tried a few new things on this run. for one, i had talked to an ultra runner who recommended adding a little salt to my gatorade since i am a heavy sweater. i added just enough to be able to barely taste the salt, when the gatorade was cold. however, the warmer it got as i ran, the more noticeable the salt taste was. it almost started tasting bad. i also had 2 different types of gels i was trying for the first time. i tried the first one at mile 5 and it tasted bad but it was thin enough that i could gulp it down in 1 big gulp and wash it down with water and barely notice the taste. the second gel i tried at mile 10. i put a little in my mouth and nearly threw up. it was bad. my stomach was never the same after that. i kept feeling sick to my stomach and finally decided to keep running wasn't helping me in the least and bad as i was doing. i actually walked a lot of the run after mile 10. also, at mile 5 i had to stop at the truck to put a new battery in my gps.

my total time for the run was 2:36.30. that is an 11.35 min/mile pace. i was trying to finish at an 11min/mile pace (for 18 miles).

this run does not make me feel good about the marathon. i have 2 more long runs before i start tapering, i really want to get a 20 miler in. i also would like to get all my daily runs in as well. the marathon is just around the corner.

thought of the day: failure is the main thing i keep thinking about.