UGH

Race is Saturday. My attempt at running a 24 minute 5K is 35ish hours away.

At the risk of provoking the Con Man I must whine about this week.

I should've run Monday, so I could run speedwork yesterday, easy today and take tomorrow off. But I didn't, because Brian Williamson and Michael Cell created the most wonderful tasting beer EVER. And Holmes and I had way way too much fun at a wedding and after party (they had $4 New Belgium Black Ale, oh so yummy). So I didn't run Monday. Tuesdays run was bad. I wasn't into it. I've had a bad run here or there before though, big deal. Yesterday, I took BOSU (because I'm addicted) but did NOT overdo it. I took it rather easy in fact. That brings us to today. I went out to run speed work. I thought I'd wait until the afternoon for two reasons. I really didn't want to run inside at the gym (the track there is six laps to a mile) and I don't know what the local school tracks are like in the morning. And then I thought as a nice bonus, it would be good training for how hot it could potentially be Saturday morning. Today on the log was 3x800s @ 3:58 with 400 jogs. 5 miles total. I did 4x800s last week a smidge faster than that (3:55, 3:33, 3:39 and 3:42) and felt GREAT. I thought it was a little strange to do track intervals two weeks in a row. My schedules usually switch out speedwork for tempo runs every other week. Oh well. I went to the track. It was about 85 ish degrees, I'm guessing 50 or 60% humidity, but it was cloudy, so the sun wasn't beating down. I had two huge bottles, one full of gatorade and one full of water. I'd been hydrating all day as well.

Oh, that was the worst thirty minutes of my life. I started the warm up mile and felt off. Just heavy and weird. I went and grabbed my iPod out of the car, kept warming up. I started my first 800 and after the first 100 I realized I was going way slow. So I sped up, hit the first 400 at a good pace. By the time I was halfway around the second 400, I was SUCKING WIND. I pushed and finished. I over-pushed though and the first 800 was in 3:4. Grabbed gatorade and water. Sipped a bit of both and was still able to jog my recovery. Flipped the shuffle around and found my usual kick me in the rear songs. I started my second 800. All of a sudden it was torture. 2nd 800-3:54. Goal, yes, but I had to walk my second recovery lap. I started my usual self talk....only one more, no big deal, two laps? what is that, come on. I started my 3rd 800. I got to the 100 mark and started slowing down involuntarily. I could feel it and I was looking at legs, willing them to move. I tried to think back to mile 19 of the marathon, the big hill at 22, the people I passed at 25. It didn't work. I could not convince myself to keep going. So I stopped. I started walking. I've never quit. I rounded the end of the track and Garmin told me my total distance was 3.11. I decided that was enough and walked to my car.

Soooooooooooooooo.
Do I run two easy miles tomorrow morning? To complete my weekly mileage AND to remind myself that running does not suck? So I can get to the start line without this being the last running feeling in my body? Do I abandon all hope of my goal for Saturday? Last week's speed work is promising, right? My last two months of speedwork have been pretty on key as well. 1600s and 800s, all on target and yet not all out.

For now, I shall pout and finish my never ending school work.

Any insight is appreciated.