Oh Everest, My Everest

My fatal flaw only got me partially this morning - I woke up 20 minutes before my scheduled alarm to use the head and didn't just stay up. I thought, I'll just enjoy my cozy bed for 20 minutes and then get going. I've got time.

So after I hit 'snooze' for the 9th time, it was almost 8am, which is pretty much time to get ready for work. I keep hearing that I need to gradually get up earlier and earlier to go from an 8am rise-and-shine to a much earlier one that leaves time for running. The only problem with that is that I can't add running gradually; I either run or I don't. So this morning, I decided to turn the tide even though it was so late. I know I can run a mile in under 15 minutes even on a bad day, so I made myself get dressed and walked over to my running spot.

Then I got really ambitious and thought, I can run three miles at a 10-min pace so then I'd be back to my room by 8:30... perfect! Problem is, I haven't run a 10-min mile since 10th grade (well maybe once a few years ago, too). So with my forerunner beeping at me to speed up pretty much the whole time (at least on the uphill half of the loop), I completed one mile and pretty much wanted to vomit. Only reason I didn't was that there was nothing to cough up. 8am is a lot hotter than 7am is a lot hotter than 6am. I need to make this gradual process go faster so I can enjoy more running at an almost decent temperature.

Work was frustrating and stressful as usual. I just got by those nine and a half hours. Thankfully the big scary thunderstorm rolled through and hid the sun and broke the humidity a bit. Around 8pm, I headed back out to try again on the speedy 3-miler. This time I kept a 10:43 average pace. That's pretty damn good considering the shape I'm in! I mean, I almost wanted to throw up the whole time, but this was foreseen so I'd only eaten an apple before the run and went mostly hungry.

I've been eating pizza and pasta and apples and yogurt for the last few days, so I think I had a good store of fuel that let me run under-hydrated and under-fed *twice* today. So, I can't complain too much. I'm happy just putting in the miles and hoping to find the will again tomorrow.

Labels: body fuel, food, morning run, speed run, two runs in one day