And the training continues...

So far this training/racing season I've been pretty lucky with my running. I've had, for the most part, some pretty great training runs and, of course, some outstanding races with multiple PR's. It's training runs like today, however, that keep me humble. Since I've pretty much blown off the Fleet Feet training group I signed up with, I've been going it alone most runs, but amazingly, have been doing pretty well with keeping up my training schedule. I'm still going by the FF training schedule though, and was set to do 6 miles today. Since the time change this past weekend, I took it upon myself to sleep in this morning since I've been nearly exhausted almost every day. With a forecast of mid-60's, I figured it would still be cool enough at 11:30 (and 50 degrees) to wear pants and a t-shirt to run. This, coupled with the fact that my nutrition of the past 24 hours consisted of a small bowl of rice and chicken for lunch, pb&j with barbecue chips for dinner (at 6:00 p.m. mind you) and a bowl of Raisin Bran this morning immediately prior to going out did not make for a good run. I felt heavy during the entire run, and the hills of Iroquois giving me the business certainly didn't help - although I must admit that pushing myself to run most of the hills felt good, and the fact that they were at the beginning of my run definitely helped. Upon leaving the hilly three-mile section of the park, I hooked a left to run another mile or so up Southern Parkway so I could get in the full 6. Not long after crossing New Cut Road however, I was arguing with myself about how far I REALLY wanted to go and, could I just pull off 5 and still be okay with it? The answer ended up being no, as I went just far enough to have to turn back around and head towards the car, having no choice but to get in the full distance. The pants were definitely a bad idea, but at least they were loose and I did take my fuel belt with me so that helped. I honestly think the biggest issue was my nutrition though. Four miles in I was thinking back to what I had eaten and felt ridiculous to think that I could have a decent run with very little fueling my body. Well, you live and you learn - although after 9 years of running you think I'd have the routine down by now. Nonetheless, the splits for the run today were: 10:17, 10:29, 10:49, 11:01, 11:49 and 11:25 with an overall average pace of 10:59. Funny though, even with this horrible training run, my splits and average end up being faster than a lot of the races I've completed in years past. That has to count for something I think! As a side note, my 3.1 mile, 40 degree run from 2 nights ago ended up looking like this: 9:58, 10:30, 11:11 for an average of 10:31. I think this actually ended up being one of my fastest 5k's.