Body and Mind

My mind found my body lounging around this morning. It was later in the morning than I plan most of my runs as the body had slept in. The mind brought up the subject of the body getting up and going out for a run. The body told the mind that he was only getting up if they were going to do an easy run like yesterday. No tomfoolery, no long runs, no gazelles. The body was complaining about his back and his legs were not all that.

So the mind agreed with the body. But the mind was actually telling a lie to the body to get out the door. The mind was tempted to let the body have about 12 more hours of rest and try the run later. Then the mind found out that the grass was still too wet to cut this morning. The body did resist, but the truest Army statement of mind over matter is if you don't mind, it don't matter. At about 8:30 in the morning, I finally went out of the front door.

My time up the first mile and around the trail to main post was on par with other times, and at the end of the trail, I stashed a small Powerade.

Powerade is what they serve at the Walt Disney World Marathon, so I have been planning on using it during my long runs. I placed it where I would be completing 8 miles, or about 1 hour into my run. What I discovered in running it up to the stash point is that I do not like to carry items in both hands. I'm not sure how some trail runners can do it with two water bottles. I'd lose my mind.

I knew I was pushing a bit too hard on the pace for my early mileage. I grabbed a swig from the water fountain at Doughboy Stadium at about 3.5 miles. Something inside couldn't stop me and I continued to move out pretty quickly and I hit my 5 miles at 37:30. The odd thing is that I felt like I wasn't moving out that quickly, though. I felt as if I was having a rough run and that my breathing was a bit off. Yet there I was, in disbelief looking at my Garmin.

I tried for more than 8 miles in one hour, but it just was not to be today. I grabbed up my small bottle of Powerade and tried a few hits of it on the move. About a half mile later, I stopped at the golf course rest stop and drank down the last of the 8 ounce Powerade and some water. For about 2 miles, my stomach felt heavy and I wished upon a star that WDW used Gatorade! I also know that I can blame myself for not bringing a squeeze bottle and rationing better. Great, I learned another lesson that I already knew.

I looped around most of the main post officer housing and felt really weak during some of it, but I stuck with it and before long I was powering down the long road between the golf course, again. The trail over to my street was a bit rough, but I held together and felt a strong push for the last mile. I didn't remember feeling this way during the last 15 mile run I did about 3 weeks ago, but I think that it had to do with the heat building up today.

In the end, I tricked the body into staying with me and completing anouther good run on the road to the marathon. I think I'm going to continue a weekly chart on the blog and I believe that I'm going to take tomorrow light.

Observations: 16 cyclists, 6 runners. Never leave the squeeze bottle at the office. Fooling the body every now and then can be a good thing.

Bottom line: knocked out 15.0 miles in 1:58:54 at an avg. 7:56 pace.

Ouch!