Log #50: Rock Bottom

Sunday was the worst day of the year in terms of running and life. I suppose it can only get better from here.

I woke up early with my girlfriend to do 20 miler #3. I was pumped up, I felt great. My girlfriend went outside to get something from her car. When she came back up, she said:

"Joey, we need to call the police. Your car was broken into."

AAAAARARRRGGGHH!!!!

We go down to check it out. My driver's side window is destroyed, glass is everywhere. My glove box, which was locked, has been ripped off of the dashboard and is hanging down on the floor of the car. My $500 GPS is gone. Nothing else was taken.

This immediately puts a huge gray cloud over the day. After calling the cops and dealing with that nonsense, we finally headed out for the run. I figured that a nice 20 miler would make me feel better about my car. I was SOOO pissed.

We ran a mile down to the river, and crossed over to the other side, at which point our progress was halted. Apparently, Sunday was the day of the Walk for Breast Cancer. There were probably 25,000 people walking around the river in a 5 mile loop. The path was so clogged that I couldn't even dodge in and out of people, and my girlfriend was on roller blades so she had nowhere else to go. We tried to get through the crowd, but it was useless, and we felt defeated. We ran home and decided to try again in a few hours.

Total Distance: 4 miles.

Around 3:00pm, after wrapping my driver's side door in saran wrap to protect my car in case of rain, we headed out for a second attempt. By now, my legs were cold and stiff, I was in a dark mood, and I really didn't feel like running. About a half-mile into the run, I crossed the street and a biker went by me. Apparently I had run out in front of her a little too close for her liking (I gave her about 20 feet.) She yelled out something like, "Why don't you just run out in front of me and get hit?!?"

Well, after the events of the day, I had lost my capacity to let stuff slide, so I immediately turned and screamed at her to "Shut the F--- up!!!"

She came back around and I screamed at her for a minute or two while she made stupid remarks and tried to be tough. I kept telling her she was being ridiculous and she was, clearly, not a very nice person. My girlfriend finally convinced me that this jerk wasn't worth my trouble so I turned around and jogged off. I haven't lost my shit on someone in years, so that should give everyone an idea of how awful my mood was Sunday.

After about 5 miles, my stomach went south, and 1 mile later our run was finished.

Total miles: 10 miles.

I am sooooo glad that shitty day is in the past now.

Fast forward to this morning. It's 45 degrees out, I am still bitter about the weekend. My training plan calls for the following:

10 minute warmup
3 x (2 x 1200m @ 4:55 with 2:00RI)
4:00RI in between sets
10 minute cooldown


So that works out to about 4.5 miles of hard running, my longest speed workout to date. Here's what I banged out:

4:55
4:50
4:48
4:50
4:50
4:48

So, I still got it. I feel better, and I'm still really pumped for the marathon. My fitness is clearly at an all time high, and even though I blew a 20 miler, I don't think it will hurt me too badly.

This Thursday is the worst goddamn LT run yet. Here it is:

1 mile warmup (8:30)
10 miles @ 8:00

So... 11 miles in the morning. CRAAAAP! I'm gonna need to wake up at 5:00 to do it. Kill me now.