Too Hot to Handle=another very bad idea

So. It has been over a week since I updated the blog. I am having a really hard time getting in my five days of training. It hasn't hurt me yet-but I don't want to continue along this path.

Last week's (July 12-17) workouts were not as good as I wanted them to go. I missed my Monday run, so tried to compensate Tuesday by doing an extra 2 miles with longer strides than assigned. On Wednesday (tempo run day) I decided to go to running group with some friends and only managed to do a mile warm-up and a mile at a very slow pace. I came home with every intention of getting in my 3 miles of marathon pace, but one mile in and I was done-still too hot and too humid and my shins were on FIRE!!!I did however do my easy run on Thursday.  My shins were still flaring up, so in anticipation of the 15K on Sunday I decided to just walk on Friday and rest on Saturday.

I haven't raced a distance longer than a 5K, since February so I was very anxious about Sunday's race. I like the course and had the expectation of at least running the same time I did in January. Well, disappointment was the order of the day.

First off, the field was increased to 2400 (the previous race was only 1800) and believe me, there were at least that many people there. It took 5 minutes to get to the start line and we were in the middle of the pack. The second thing was the race was suppose to begin at 7:30, but because so many people showed up late to register we didn't get going until 8:00. By that time the sun was completely up and beating down. There was a dead armadillo under the bridge we had to run by at the beginning of the race and it made me gag-nothing like the smell of baking roadkill to start the day off!

The course was deceptive because the first four miles were nice and shady with a lovely breeze blowing off the lake. Then at mile 5, the wind died and so did my stamina. I was going slower, and slower with each mile.  I reached the 6.5 point and just couldn't pick my feet up to jog any longer. I walked until mile 8 when my wonderful husband and son came out to meet me and run the rest of the race with me. They had ran the 5K earlier and were waiting on me-I was so happy that they did that for me! I wouldn't have been able to jog without their encouragement. I did manage to jog to the finish in a shamefully slow time of 1:54 minutes (chip time). So much for maintaining my 1:37:55 from January. I knew I was going slow, but I really didn't think it was that slow-I just don't think I could have done any better. If it would have been cooler I know I would have ran a lot faster. My friend has told me that I don't need to beat myself up about this, everyone has a bad race and I haven't had mine yet and everyone plateaus, which I also haven't done-but I think I am there.

To get through this I will need to be patient with myself.