The Wall

Oh yes. The Wall.

I hit it in a major way during my track workout yesterday. Coming down from my glory that was last week's track workout, I definitely did not have a repeat performance. *Sigh* I wasn't going to highlight all of my times here, because it's a little embarrassing - you can just see the Wall going up. You should have been there in my head. I was freaking out. Some thoughts:

"You did this last week, you can do this now"

"This doesn't feel anything like it did last week, what's wrong with you?"

"You're running too fast, you need to calm down"

"You're running too slow, you need to speed up. WHY AREN'T YOU MOVING FASTER?"

"OOOUUUUCCCHHHH!!!!!! GAAAAAHHHHH! !@#$%%^&*(*^&%!!!!"

Anyway, then I was thinking about it while I was lying around in bed les miserables today (I stayed home sick from work all pukey and unpleasant) and it's not fair to post only my good days. I have to throw up the bad ones too. So here you go (complete with more inner Ashleigh mind musings):

Note: This is my typical 6x800 track workout. I'm thinking about mixing it up next week and doing a ladder or something instead. 800s are soul-crushing)

1 - 3:27 Hmmmm...This doesn't feel quite right...

2 - 3:28 Okay, I'm hanging in there, only what 4 MORE TO GO?! GAH!!! :(

3 - 3:30 This is all very, very wrong...

*Stop to go dry heave in the bushes, thus, taking longer than my normal 2 minute recovery time*

4 - 3:35 Helllloooooo Wall! I actually stopped and walked a few paces.

5 - 3:36

6 - 3:49 All hope is lost. I vow to never run again.

So there you go. I guess the important lesson to learn from this is that even when you hit the wall, it's important to keep running and complete your workout. Feeling like crap isn't the same thing as being injured, and running through it will only help you in the long run (ha! literally!). From what I've read, the Wall comes for most marathoners around mile 18-23 (MuM, is this correct?) It's to be expected and it's a normal part of training, and running in general.

I wish I had some brilliant parting advice for you on how to overcome said Wall, but sadly, I don't. It's there, you'll hit it, it will really, REALLY suck, and there's nothing to do about it but to keep putting one foot in front of the other. The end is of the race is like Friday: even when it seems like it never will, it always comes.