Slogging and Blogging

I am extremely frustrated with my running right now. I call it slogging when I am running slowly, and that’s about all I can do right now. I have not gotten my running groove back since my surgery, and some excess weight is dragging me down.

Recently, I ran 12 miles in ohio on a mostly flat paved trail. My plan was to do 4 miles easy, 4 miles hard and 4 miles easy. I had trouble doing even a pace of 10 during those middle “hard” 4 miles. Half way through the run, I refilled my fuel belt with 42 ounces of water. That’s about 2 pounds. I was really struck by how heavy that two extra pounds felt around my waist. Funny, I never notice the weight of the water when I am first starting out my long runs.

I have put on over 15 pounds of excess weight in the last nine months. I keep thinking about how that 2 pound fuel belt felt when I refilled it. Two pounds felt like so much extra weight, and I’ve gained 15. Crap.

On July 4th, I did a 5 mile race, also in Ohio – the course was totally flat. I ran it in 46 minutes. The temperature was a cool 70 degrees. Last year I did the same race in 40 minutes in sweltering heat.

My last tempo run went badly, too. I used to be able to do a 6 mile hilly run to the lake and back in 58 minutes. Now, it takes me well over an hour. I always stop my watch when it hits the hour mark because I am so pissed off. I had hoped to be able to someday do this route in less than 50 minutes.

Today I did a track workout. I did 4 x 800. I couldn’t even run the 800’s in 4 minutes. Crap, Crap.

Sorry for all the negativity.? It’s nice to vent (thus the title: “Slogging and Blogging”)!? I am just feeling like I won’t ever get back to where I was last season. And I had really wanted to do better this season, not worse. Crap, Crap, Crap.