I got up early this morning and headed out for my training run in the Garden starting with the Incline Club but heading east instead of west. I was planning on running 9:15 miles, a few seconds faster than last week. I had my usual slow start; I just take a while to get warmed up. I was running with someone I had just met who hadn’t run the race, or the course before and he was much younger, and faster. “Good,” I thought, “He’ll push me to go that little bit faster.” We ran to the turn and headed up the first hill towards Balanced Rock. I realized at that point that my legs felt like I was in concrete shoes. Joe slowed down to stay with me, and I struggled up the hill. I’ve run 800 miles since January and this was the first time I just felt off. I’ve been tired, but this was more than that. We continued the run and I was trying to figure out what it might be. I’ve had a busy week in the yard (yay sunshine) and garden, as well as spent a lot of time with my koi hobby and club. Maybe all the bending, stretching, and lifting was catching up with me. I was drinking copious amounts of water and then realized maybe I wasn’t tired because of activity, I don’t think I had been drinking enough water over the last few days, even though I had had a lot.

I remember a couple Pikes Peak Ascents where I had cramped and tried to put that into the mix of thought. Last night I went to a friend’s birthday party and had finger food for dinner, so maybe it was a nutrition issue.  I finished the run, having sent Joe on, once we were back on the main road. He stayed with me for a bit, and then went on. I walked a bit, something I rarely do. I usually just slow down but keep on going. I eventually finished, but was 10 minutes slower than I wanted to be. I said goodbye to Joe and headed home. Once home I had a good lunch of pasta, had several glasses of water, and rested. I’m not sure my running blahs today were caused by nutrition and hydration but I was certainly reminded that they are a critical part of running and training. With only two weeks left before the Garden of the Gods race, I need to be aware of food and water. There may be some athletes who can ignore these factors but I’m not one of them. Come race day, I will have made sure to eat well, hydrate well, and rest.

Amidst all the angst about my blahs, I also thought of something my doctor told me early on as I was getting back into shape and frequently really sore. His advice was that if I hurt more when running than when not running, I was injuring myself and to stop. If the aches went away while running, then I should keep going. Good advice and something I’ve followed for years. Fortunately I almost always feel better running so I’m not about to let a case of the blahs get me. I’ll chalk this one up to just one of those days and remember not how tired I was, but what an incredible place the Garden is. Just looking at the view as you top the big hill at mile 4.5 and look out over the scenery is enough to push away the blahs and bring a sense of wonder into play.