The Sound of Silence

Got out of bed at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday (I know, miracle of all miracles) and after some peanut butter on toast, headed out to do eight miles. Muggier than I would have liked, but was pretty pleased with myself for being out early in the morning. Noticed early on in the run that my legs felt a lot better than usual, probably because I've been running later in the afternoon and evening after a day of activity, I forgot what rested legs felt like.

Was moving along pretty well and was getting into a groove around mile 3 when I skipped past a few songs on the iPod and heard. . .nothing. Horror of all horrors. Fiddled with the headphones and could still hear the Nike + lady "Pausing Workout" so knew headphones were okay . . . was trying to go back and forth on playlist to see if that would help and inadvertently ended my workout (Dammit! I really like hearing "956 Calories" at the end of the run.) Tried to reset it, turn it off/on, the thing was locked up. Kept running with the headphones on thinking that maybe it would unlock itself and suddenly I would hear Fall Out Boy in my ears. Nothing. Except my breathing for five torturous miles. It's not a pretty sound.

Finished the eight miles but not really a satisfying run. Did more run/walk than I planned because mentally the sound of my breathing was messing up my focus. I had a hard time relaxing into the run. So instead I just made repeated deals with myself. "Just run until the fire hydrant. Ok, now you can walk until Fruitful Yield entrance. Ok, now run until you reach the funeral home entrance. Ok, lie down and die."

I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't worried about the Marathon. Really worried. I'm only one week behind my training at this point last year, but much more worried about it. I need to get in check mentally or I'm going to be toast by mile 10 at the Marathon.

Going out to the "Runners' Dinner" tonight. My sister and three cousins - - all training for Chicago '08 - - get together to eat, drink and talk about running/training. Expect that will help my motivation.