I need a vacation

If last Sunday's 10 mile race had gone the way yesterday's 10 mile training run went, I'm pretty sure that I would have cried and decided to bag my upcoming half marathon entirely.   Holy moly.

I headed out at 3 in the afternoon (which was fairly silly of me, in hindsight).  By mile two I was spent, and seriously considered turning around and heading home and pushing my long run to Monday.   I didn't.  I should have.

I walked nearly all of miles 5, 6, and 8.   During mile 8, I wanted to sit down on the pavement and call my husband and beg him to come get me.  I came close to tears.  It was just a silly, no good, crappy kind of run (walk).

After I'd gotten home and cleaned up, I started thinking about it.  What went wrong?

1. Hard race effort last week.  (Apparently it takes me a long time to recover)
2. Starting out at 3 in the afternoon after spending most of the morning/early afternoon on my feet.  (Probably best to do my long runs first thing in the a.m. from now on)
3. Wrong shoes.  (My husband got me shoes for Christmas and they are 1/2 a size too big.  I did not think it was a big deal.  I'm starting to realize it is.) 
4. Not running enough during the week to support higher mileage on the weekend.  (I ran 6.33 miles over two runs this past week, then went out for 10 yesterday.  Not the smartest.) 

So, while yesterday did not go as smoothly as I'd hoped, at least it was a learning experience.  I am two long runs away from my first half marathon (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!), and while nothing has gone according to plan over the past few months, at least I have complied a laundry list of "What Not to Do"s.  

I'm learning.  Baby steps.  And after the half marathon, I can let myself relax for a little while.   Well, until it's time to start training for my next half marathon.  (Which, I promise, I'm actually going to train for.)