Today's work out:
Ran 3.3 miles, 34:34
76 degrees, almost 100% humidity

Ok, so for several reasons, this was one of the hardest/worst runs ever. I realize that these happen every once in awhile, but I still find them discouraging.

I haven't run since my fantastic long run in Florida last Friday. I worked Sat/Sun overnight. I felt like a zombie on Monday and opted to spend most of my time cooking delicious food and didn't get around to running. I also started coming down with a mutant midget virus (aka something my child likely picked up from church) on Saturday and it peaked on Monday. It's hard to think about running when you can hardly breathe walking up the stairs. Tuesday morning, I dropped the Monster off of at Mom's Day Out and went home and laid in my bed. I was feeling 50 shades of gross. After several days of not sleeping well, having a headache, and being unable to breathe, I laid up in my bed like a fat kid instead of using my baby free time to de-fat my life.

Oh well. I was sick. But I'm still being hard on myself.

In my mind, I have gained about 15 lbs during my 5 days of running hiatus. I need to buy brand new clothes (made by a guy who fashions tent materials) and consider taking on a part time job so I can pay for a personal trainer and nutritionist.

I realize this is ridiculous. Kind of.

After working overnight last night, I decided that I HAD to run when I got home from work. Never mind that we have this delicious tropical humidity that has been brought up our way from Hurricane Isaac... or that 14 hour shifts make your legs feel about 50 lbs heavier....or that Sudafed makes you feel seriously disgusting. I knew if I didn't go this morning, I wouldn't go at all.

I opted to just run instead of doing any of the Jeff Galloway program this morning. I knew I didn't have it in my legs to do any of the speed drills on the schedule for today and figured a straight run was better than nothing. My husband tried to reassure me that my legs would loosen up and I'd feel good after about 5 minutes. I assured him that I would be spending most of the time walking.

Well, my legs never loosened up. I ran the longest and most agonizing 5k ever. I took a couple of walk breaks but I was able to do much more running than walking. I produced more sweat than I have here in Georgia for a LONG time. I was a sweaty beast. It took me about an hour to STOP sweating. Ultimately, I feel like such a total wuss -- BUT I ran when it was easy to say no. There will always be valid excuses. I know that getting out there counts for something.

When you are training, you are going to have terrible runs. Life does not stop and take it easy on you just because you are training for a marathon. Maybe this terrible 5k will help me find mental strength on that last, notoriously killer, 6 miles of the marathon.

For now, I am going to concentrate on losing those 15 mental pounds and simply carry on.