December 5th: Foggy Skies and Wobbly Legs

It’s confirmed: I have lost some fitness since running the half in October.

I was really hoping to go for 6 miles today. But my legs just didn’t have it in them, and I knew it after 2 miles. My aeration was fine -- it wasn’t an overall lack of stamina. But the legs just didn’t want to go.

Not helping things, I overdressed for the weather this morning. It was 51 degrees and pretty soupy out there. Down by the water, you could just about make out Keyport’s lights through the fog. (It’s actually gotten thicker since then, too.) I had my cold-weather gear on, and it was just too warm.

Oddly, even though I was feeling fatigued by mile 2, my pace picked up -- a lot. 1st mile was 9:17 -- OK, in the range of race pace. 2nd was 9:41 -- come on, Andrew, pick it up! And I did. Mile 3: 9:03. Mile 4: 8:37, and stayed on that pace till I stopped at 4.6 miles.

I realize that I’ve been hitting it pretty hard this week after, essentially, three weeks off. So I guess I should have expected to hit the wall at some point. But over four days, I’ve still done well less than a single marathon. Am I really going to get there? Especially training in the dead of winter? What happens if I have another setback? As we get closer and closer to the four-month mark, those questions are really starting to weigh on me.

I was sort of thinking about doing the Run One Challenge for December -- do at least a mile each day. (Yeah, I know I skipped December 1st.) But I need a rest day. My legs are jelly, and I still want to try for a long this weekend.

Total miles since starting the blog: 145.5