Sometimes runners just have those days where everything seems to be going great. You have a plan, you know what you are going to do, everything seems in place and then it falls apart right before your eyes. Kind of like LSU on Monday against Tennessee (Go Vols!). Since today is Wednesday, it is a distance day of 5 whole miles, although I would have been better with birthday mileage of 3.4 miles. I took off the first mile without any problem. It was very busy today and for me it was a cross country run as I dodged students and traffic to make it to the greenway. I hit the first mile at a rather easy pace. Mile 2 wasn't that bad either. At the 2.5 turnaround, I did have to stop to catch my breath, but I wasn't going any faster than last week. I made it almost to the 3.5 marker before I stopped for water. After the water stop everything came apart. I made it another 1/4 mile before I stopped to walk, I was tired. I walked about 25-30 yards and started going again. Once I hit the 4 mile marker, I had to stop again. At this point I was worried that I would not make it up the Lake Loundon Hill with any gusto. Another problem that arose was that my moisturizer that I use was getting into my eyes, this as a result of it being a great moisturizer and lasting for 10 hours! After 5 hours it was still going strong! I had no water with me to flush my eyes. I basically had to walk on the greenway with my eyes closed and every once and a while squint to see where I was going. I was able to run up the big hill, but once at the top, I walked back to the Aquatic Center, there was no need in me trying to run… it wasn't happening… here are the split times:
| Split | Split Distance | Overall Distance | Split Time | Split Pace | Overall Time | Overall Pace |
| 1 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 7:43 | – | 7:43 | – |
| 2 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 8:19 | – | 16:02 | 8:01 |
| 3 | 1.0 | 3.0 | 8:19 | – | 24:21 | 8:07 |
| 4 | 1.0 | 4.0 | 9:47 | – | 34:08 | 8:32 |
| 5 | 1.0 | 5.0 | 15:42 (ugh!) | – | 49:51 | 9:58 |
So would have caused this degradation of stamina, this slight of speed, this train wreck of foot work? As I pondered this question, the answer slowly came over me… my birthday. It is standard operating procedure that you bring in your own cake for everyone to consume on your birthday. The cake scavengers at work will not let a cake last for more than a day, so I knew I wouldn't have any to take home. With 3 college degrees, it came to me… make another cake. So last night I made 2 chocolate cakes and would frost them in the morning. So at 6:15am I was making two batches of frosting… chocolate frosting. And when you read that last sentence frosting=Terry's breakfast. So for breakfast, I ate a bunch of frosting… simple sugars… and the runners out there know that is a no-no for a race day breakfast. So when I got into work… it was standard morning coffee fare and then… cake and ice cream an hour before running. Terry feels shame…
I had thought it was the heat and although it was hot, it wasn't as hot as it was last week. I think the lack of complex carbs and absence of protien from my morning breakfast was the main culprit of the crash. One of the guys that I work with thinks it's just old age, he's only 25+ years older than I am… so he should know.
PLANET3RRY 