Tired beyond belief

This morning I wanted to get up with Graeme and go for my run at the same time he was off to work. At 5am I could barely move and so didn't. He came up to say goodbye at 6am and I still felt too tired to get up. I eventually dragged myself out of bed at 7.20am and drove to Billingham where I parked my car ready for a 3 hour run.

At first I felt great and after 15 minutes began to get that horrible "lack of motivation" feeling. This wasn't an issue however as this has now happened on every single long run for weeks and I now know that if I can just get to about 45-60 minutes this feeling subsides... and sure enough that is exactly what happened.

I really enjoyed the first half of the run and today tried a 15:3 run/walk split. As I neared the 1.5 hour turnaround point I felt like I could run and run. Unfortunately that feeling soon dispelled in favour of a knackered one, but with only around 7 miles left I was sure I could just put up the tiredness and get on with it. At 12 miles I heard a whistle behind me on the other side of the road. It was a cyclist who slowed down to chat to me about what I was doing/how far was I running/was I in the army/why was I training/would the ultra be on the TV/how would he know how I'd got on/what was my name/where did I come from/had I been to India before... the questions just went on and on and on. I would normally have chatted away merrily, but anyone who knows me knows that once I begin to feel tired on a run, I stop talking. Graeme now knows that as he receives one word answers it's time to leave me alone. I eventually said to this chap, "Well, hope the rest of your cycle goes well, it was nice chatting to you". He eventually took the hint but had been with me for a whole mile. A mile of chatting when I would normally say, "Yes... no... no... STFU" really took it out of me and the following 3 minute walk did nothing to improve my tiredness. I ran the next 15 minute stint and to be honest I can't believe I managed to do it without a cheeky extra walk break as I was so spent!

Luckily the next 3 minute walk break really sorted me out and I ran the last 15 minutes well. By the time it was due for my final 3 minute walk break (and almost back at the car) I was walking so slowly because my calves were hurting and I was just totally knackered. I even cheated and cut through a hole in a fence to get to my car... so that clearly showed I did not achieve a negative split today!

Once back home I had a turkey salad sandwich and slept for an hour on the sofa... not something I normally do! So, today is not a day where after half an hour I feel like I haven't trained nor could I have ran another step if I had wanted to. To make matters worse, the blister I have ripped when I took off the plaster I was wearing as it stuck to my skin... I also have a new blister just above it (obviously caused by the way I put the plaster on). It looks like I'm going to have to buy a large gel toe cap so I can get this sorted. Luckily it did not bother me one bit during the run, and I only became aware of it after I had finished, so at least that is good.

And I have now ran 110 miles this month. I have not ran this many miles since April 2010, and todays long run of 16.8 miles is my longest since Florence marathon in November. No wonder I'm shattered! :-)