How not to prepare for your long run

Sat AM: 5K Coolrunning challenge - 23:59, no vomit.
Sun PM: 16K long run @ 5:52 pace. Ugly.
Sleep: Fair
Weight: 75.8 (more dehydration than anything else, methinks)

Well, Saturday was a hoot. After the obligatory socialising (during which I actually met Mr WT for the first time, as opposed to hanging around in the same "chat circle") I went for a warm up with sfGnome and Kit (another I'd met for the first time).

As I had stated, the target today was 24 minutes sans vomit. The 24 minute group was myself & Kit. We both took off like startled rabbits and I passed through 1K in 4:30 slightly behind Kit.

Now what made this a good run was that normally under these circumstance, I'd say to myself "right, let's see if we can hang on to it and bring home a big PB" without listening to the body (hence my new Coolrunning handle: Chunderbolt). Instead, I slowed down and did the next K in 4:50. I tried to keep a balance between pushing myself and blowing up for the rest of the race. The result was as I had outlined above - 23:59.25, no vomit. I'm stoked about this - it's the first time I've shown the discretion to accept that the PB wasn't on before my body had failed me. I'm learning.

Now, let's talk about Sunday. Sunday was a bloody marvellous day. I had been to a family wedding on Saturday night, so I was in no state to get up early and run on Sunday morning. Running in the late morning was not an option - I had arranged to spend the day in the city with a ... friend. So I spent the day walking around Sydney and eating thing I ought not eat and drinking only flat whites.

So after gorging myself on white chocolate & raspberry bullets and on tired legs I headed out for a long run on the same course I did 2 weeks ago. It was rough. It was heavy legged. I had the taste of the bullets repeating for most of the run and I had a stitch for most of the second half. I was in a pretty good mood, but that had bugger all to do with the run, which was utterly atrocious.