I was excited last night and felt that I prepared properly for my 22 miler today, and it just didn’t work out this week ending with just over 18 miles under my belt. Thankfully i’m okay in knowing that not every run is always going to be a good run. I will live to run again. It doesn’t help my spirit though that my first fall marathon is only 4 weeks away, and i really only have 2 real long runs left prior to it… well, we just have to prepare better I guess.

Hitting the wall in my opinion can be prevented if you prepare properly .. its really a lack of focus in more than one areas. So what do I feel I should have done better? Here goes:

1. I didn’t sleep well last night. I was up at least an hour or two, and when i was sleeping, it was choppy sleep.

2. In spite of #1, overall i’m just tired, I had a real busy week and haven’t really slept well any night all week. I expected to get up at 5:30 when my alarm went off today, but shut it off and slept another hour (which is unlike me). So I got a late start as well.

3. I ran a decently hilly course, which strayed a bit from my norm. I do have to get used of the hills, but maybe at this point it wasn’t a good idea since i’m kind of behind in my performance due to my knee last week.

4. I counted on getting a water at my favorite vending machine, and they were OUT! So for some stupid reason, I got a pink lemonade instead because I was really badly dehydrated. BAD MISTAKE! If there is one thing I can always suggest, its NOT to drink a real sugary drink during a long run. This was the start of the wall .. my stomach got upset, my performance started to decline and it didn’t quench my thirst. Bad mistake on my part. I should have waited until the next possible stop instead of doing this.

5. Mentally I just wasn’t into it. I always write about how important the mental piece is in having a good run, and I just don’t feel it was there. I was zoned out from my music (which is unlike me) .. and didn’t really get into it at all the whole time. I just have too much on my mind right now .. I have to relax!

6. Lastly? I may be running too many miles now during the mid week that my legs are just worn out by the weekend. I’m going to TRY to cut it back (at least Thursday) so that my legs aren’t so burnt out.

So the recipe for the wall today was being overall tired feeding into being terribly dehydrated once again (it was mid 70’s, 99% humidity when I got home) .. which didn’t help the fact my mind wasn’t into it either. That will get you every time.

Its time to get serious about prepping properly for these runs. I can’t beat the heat and humidity, its just that time of year, so I have to get UP and OUT early, like I should have this morning and maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad…

Tomorrow is another day, we’ll try to make up the miles at least and get 14-15 miles in if I can .. next week, another long run, this time we’ll be prepared!