Massive Fail

I've written about difficult runs before and yesterday's run falls directly into this catagory.  The plan was to run 6.8 easy miles (9:50 pace) with Alex.  But as soon as we stepped out the door I knew I was going to be in trouble.  All of us runners know that feeling - no energy, heavy legs, shortness of breath.  Every step was like I was laboring from the get-go.  Now I'm never one to make excuses but I was pretty tired from the day before, I didn't hydrate myself properly during the day prior to the run, and we did run at 4:00 pm in 80 degree weather which I'm not used to doing.  I'm justifying the poor run in my head to these issues.  Otherwise I might not ever get out and run again :)

On a side note - I accepted a job offer yesterday and I start Monday.  Mostly because we're trying to free up some time for Beth so she can start using her Real Estate licence that she earned last month.  She's currently interviewing for positions with all the 'big' agencies and I expect her to land a position here very soon.  Because she won't be pulling a steady salary, I needed to make sure that I got something with a steady paycheck to pay the bills.  I'm still doing the stock market stuff - and I'm doing pretty well this year ($4k in profits - off $14 initial investment).  But this isn't enough to live off of, and I do want to re-invest about 50% in order to grow this liquid funds account.  My IRA account is flat this year so I'm good there also.

Getting back to running - I'm feeling really tired lately, almost sugglish but I'm guessing that I'm just being a little lazy lately.  I'm not sure why, but I am trying to push through this to keep my mileage up.  Last year during these 'phases' I'd take two-three weeks off and it really affcted my results throughout the year.  This is the first time this year that I've run accross this problem so I'm battling right now.

Tonight I'm hopig for an easy 3 miler to see how I'm feeling.  I have to remember just last week I was hitting new PB's.

Keep Steppin'
Bob