Nothing great is easy

I wanted to quit during my long run today. I had a scheduled 16 miler today. At mile 15 I stopped and walked, at mile 12 I made my plans to stop two miles short when my route passed my house again, at mile 1 I asked myself if I could execute this run at all.

Yesterday was the CAN DC Alumni Flag Football tournament and I found out that my anaerobic muscle fibers were not properly prepared for the effort. I woke for my run hobbled with stiff muscles and a sore left big toe.

After I decided to get the run over with, I worked hard to maintain the goal pace. I succeed for 12 miles then I thought I had had enough and wanted to go home. Soon I remembered that I had already been through worse physical exertion and that I need to push through this for the marathon. I passed my house at mile 14 and kept trudging along forgetting my goal pace and finally slowed to determined walk at mile 15. With 400 meters to go I picked it up to finish strong and learned my lesson of the day - nothing great is ever easy.

Weekly stats:

• Tues: 7 miles - 57:33 - 8:13 min/mi
• Thurs: 6.8 miles - 55:19 - 8:08 min/mi (5 mile tempo run at 7:41 min/mi)
• Fri: 6 miles - 54:24 - 9:04 min/mi
• Sun: 16.05 miles - 2:35:10 - 9:40 min/mi
• Totals: 35.85 miles