Struggling!

On the training calendar today was a 14 mile road run, comprising of 5.5 miles ‘fast’ followed by 8.5 miles ‘comfortable’.  All I can say is that NONE of it was comfortable.  I was struggling.

The first 5.5 seemed to take forever to get through.  I ran from home, along Lever Park Avenue and out past the Millstone towards Adlington.  I then carried on along all the way to where the road meets the A6 and then turned back on myself along the A6.  The 5.5 miles ended just as I had passed back through Adlington and was climbing the small hill just before the farmland before the Cherry Tree pub.  I was so relieved when that initial 5.5 miles had passed thinking that the next 8.5 would be really easy but it wasn’t.  I was really tired.  Maybe it was the tough spin class last night, coupled with the half bottle of wine?  Even my energy gels weren’t helping and I was struggling just to keep up a nine minute mile pace.  The time was dragging so much.  Why is it that 14 miles on the fells, even though it takes longer than on the road, seems to go much faster?  The answer to that is obvious – because it’s much more fun!!!! 

I carried on along the A6, turning off in Westhoughton onto Wingates Lane and heading towards the Middlebrook.  I’m ashamed to say that when I was running around the Middlebrook, I actually stopped to ring Duncan to see if he would be on his way home from work soon and could pick me up because I couldn’t bear the thought of running that last two miles home.  I was struggling to hold back the tears at this point.  Pathetic as that may sound, I was just really upset at the thought of being defeated by such an easy run.  I didn’t understand why I was finding it so difficult, spin class or not.  How can I expect to run 26.2 miles in under four hours if I can’t run 14 at that pace?  Duncan told me that he wouldn’t be finishing work for a while and that I should pull myself together and man up and just get home so I did, albeit at snail’s pace. 

It was awful and I spent that last two miles thinking about whether I should just pull out of the race altogether.  It wasn’t until I got home that I started thinking about how detrimental the spin class could have been because all the other regulars there have said that they feel really lethargic and energyless the next day.  Nadine won’t do spin on a Friday anymore because it’s so detrimental to her weight session on a Saturday morning so maybe I should just give myself a break?

Total distance – 14 miles