Shifting my run schedule has disastrous effects

September 21, 2006

The past couple days it’s been pretty chilly in the morning. Enough that I wasn’t quite mentally prepared to go running in the cold. Nor was I sartorially prepared either–I haven’t purchased any cold-weather running gear yet.

So I figured I’d just do a switcheroo–still come in to work at the same time, but instead of heading down to the gym I’d just get to work. And then do my run at lunchtime instead of the early morning. Turns out that switching my schedule seems to have caused me some problems, both physical and mental.

The mental issue first–Tuesday I completely forgot to bring my albuterol inhaler with me to the gym. That’s never happened the entire time I’ve been doing this marathon training. I take a couple puffs before I run, as a preventative measure against any possible asthma problems. I went ahead and ran anyway, figuring I’m in much better shape than when I started this so perhaps I could make it without the albuterol. Turns out I did manage to squeeze out four of the five miles I was scheduled to run. But I definitely felt some breathing issues, nothing major just enough that I cut the run short. No idea though if those were real breathing issues or psychological.

The physical issues happened with the Wednesday run. First off, even at noon it was downright chilly, especially with the wind blowing off the Ohio River. I never really got warmed up, even by the end of the run. And the run itself was horrific–I did five miles but the last three were on willpower alone. It might have been some kind of hydration issue, as I went thru three water bottles during those 5 miles. That’s normally what I drink during 8 mile runs. And of course the reason I had that much water on me to begin with was because this should have been an 8 mile run but got cut short to a mere 5 miles.

Basically this has not been a stellar week in my training. And it will get worse–I am flying out of town on Sunday for vacation so I’m having to switch my long run to Saturday morning instead of Sunday. That’s a much bigger shift than the last couple runs, a full 24 hours. And to make matters worse, in order to do this I’ve decided I have to skip my Friday run entirely. You’re not supposed to do any running the day before the long run.

Whatever happens Saturday morning, when I enter all this into the log it’s going to be a very bad week. I’ll be at least 9 miles short of the mileage goal for this week. Unless I miraculously find the strength to take on some extra miles during the 16-mile Saturday run. Which I rather doubt is going to happen. It’s more likely I won’t make the 16-mile distance, only adding to my mileage deficit this week.

Oh well, c’est la vie.