Bad at Blogging & Bonking

So, I completely forgot to blog last week.  I had a rather busy Saturday, but I've finally pried the boys off the computer long enough to catch back up.  Here's what you've missed:

Last Week

I finally got my new shoes, and boy do my feet feel fantastic!  Every time I wince at the price of those puppies, I need to remember that they fit wonderfully and make all the difference.  I ran on Sept. 11th through the neighborhood, and the weather felt great. We finally got a much-needed break from the heat.

On Sept. 13th, I started out too fast and got tired towards the end.  But, all in all, still wasn't a bad run.  Once again, the shoes were nice!

On Sept. 15th, I ended up changing my running plans due to getting a call from the city of Alvin that we had multiple mosquito populations near us that tested positive for West Nile virus.  Between not wanting to get sick & having a haircut scheduled at 9:30, I went to the gym.  It was only 6 miles, but feeling like I was on a time crunch bothered me and threw off my concentration.  I got it done, but it wasn't pretty.  I had a lot of running around town to do, so I still squeezed in a little more exercise...

This Week

On Tuesday, I decided to run through the neighborhood due to being at school longer than I anticipated.  I started out great, then slowed down a bit when James decided to "help" me.  He wanted to ride his bike along side me.  The only problem was that he kept weaving in front of me and slowing down suddenly, which threw off my pace.  At one point, I told him to ride behind me, and then he ran into the back of my leg.  Needless to say, I will not be encouraging him to ride when I'm running again anytime soon...

On Thursday, I had this weird feeling that I was forgetting something.  I had my school stuff, both kids, my keys & phone, but I couldn't figure out what I had missed.  It wasn't until I was getting ready to run on the treadmill that I made my discovery--my MP3 player was at home.  Ugh!  I'm a bit of a "music-holic", so not having my tunes was really frustrating.  So, instead, I just focused on SportsCenter and followed the timer on the mill to make sure I kept a decent pace.

This morning, I woke up early to go tackle my 10-mile run.  Learning from my mistake on Thursday, the first thing I grabbed was my MP3 player.  I checked the battery level & discovered to my horror that it was dead.  So, I made an executive decision to charge it and go back to sleep... :)  I got up later & had my granola bar, then headed out the door.  I chose to run at Stevenson Park again because I wanted to be sure I only ran 10 miles.  Plus, my tummy was a little off(so making sure I had facilities nearby was a bonus.  I figured out that I could use rocks to keep track of my laps.  The track is only 1/2 mile around, so I was in for 20 laps.  I wanted to make sure that I didn't miscount and end up doing any extra, so I picked up 10 rocks and put them in my pocket.  As I completed a mile, I placed a rock on top of the distance sign.  I did really well for the first 8.5 miles, keeping a solid 13:11-minute-mile pace, and then the big BONK hit me.  I didn't have enough of the energy gels I normally use on my longer runs, and the granola bar didn't last as long as I was hoping.  It was literally all I could do to make the last 3 laps.  The worst part was feeling dizzy and out of it. I had never experienced that before, and I never want to again!  I stopped at my rock-piled sign, prayed that God would just help me finish, and I started again, but at a much slower pace.  I even ended up walking the last 1/2 mile because I didn't want to risk passing out or not being able to drive home.  I stopped at McDonald's on the way home to get a mango-pineapple smoothie to bump my blood sugar up, and that seemed to make all the difference.  I'll be making sure I'm more prepared next week, since I have an 11-miler scheduled.

If memory serves me well, the last time I trained my 10-miler was awful, but my 11-miler was awesome.  I'm sure hoping history will repeat itself!