Crash and Burn

Summary Data
Total Time (h:m:s)	27:31	10:30 pace
Distance (mi )	2.62
Moving Speed (mph)	5.7 avg.	9.2 max.
Elevation Gain (ft)	+0/-0
Avg. Heart Rate	145 bpm	182 max

Start Time: 05:02:45 PM

The plan today was for 8 hills and I managed two. Long day at work with no time for lunch (or to get out for a workout) and my 10-minute lunch of a California roll and Red Bull kicked my ass when I kicked it up for the hill workout. The first hill was tough, the second even more so---and in the three minute recovery, I was clearly not recovering.

When I was a high school runner, I sometimes looked for short cuts or came up with excuses for why I could not do long or hard runs. This was symptomatic of not really taking pleasure in the discipline and reward of running. I think that this led, in some ways, to finding it too easy to make excuses or to quit. Part of the return to this daily routine has been an unwillingness to lose the discipline---and an unwillingness to quit. I like the 'hard core' persona that I find in the workouts. Yet the battle of the 'hard core', disciplined workout guy with the guy who is equally 'hard core' about ensuring that this is a lifelong change (by taking care of myself) is not entirely clear. Is it OK to quit when you realize that you are really tired and malnourished? Will doing two or four more hills injure me or push too hard (will I consume muscle rather than glycogen)? Will completing the hills exhausted and hungry give me fitness benefit (serious fat burn)? Hard to know.

In the end, I mostly listened to my body, got off the mill after the second hill and jogged home in the rain.