Brink of Burnout

Okay, I may be doing a little too much these days.

Between working my full time job, having rehearsal for my upcoming show most evenings, and finding somewhere in the vicinity of 7 hours a week to run, I'm spreading myself a little thin. To make matters worse, I haven't been keeping this new revelation in mind with my sleeping and eating habits. While I can schedule every minute, I can't do anything else without the fuel to get it done.

The full weight of this requirement hit me around mile four today when I realized that I was pretty much tapped for energy already. After yesterday's tough five (and subsequent lackluster post), I was very in tune with what my body was telling me early on in today's nine, but I only evaluated in the short term. In short, I felt very good, which usually means that I can push the pace a bit. I should have waited a little longer before making the determination.

As the sun beat down and the sweat poured off, I had to acknowledge that I was not properly prepared for this workout. While I got the "correct" hours of sleep, the last couple were in a world of snooze, and as a result were not as effective as I needed them to be. Though I had a good dinner last night, it was coupled with beer and not nearly enough water. Throughout the day today, I kept in mind my imminent run, and was worried about eating anything beforehand. The result was almost an entire work day without food. I didn't realize any of this until I was struggling to put one foot in front of the other.

I took a few short rests throughout the run to save what energy I could, but each step brought only further attention to my need for better fueling. So I've had lots of food tonight, and I'm trying to hydrate myself with some sort of regularity.

The bright spot on the horizon is that tomorrow is a very, very short run that I will run as easily as I can. Thursday will be a slightly different form of speed work directed at success in the Capitol 10K, which I just signed up for this afternoon. Then, on Friday, I'll run an old, familiar course and Saturday brings twenty miles, which will be broken up due to St. Patrick's Day shenanigans. More on that to follow.

For tonight, I want to have some water and go to bed. They're the foundation, and if I don't want to be completely burned out in the next few days, I need to build up that foundation.

And get myself back from the brink.

Tuesday's Run:
73 Degrees, humid
8.98 Miles