message in a bottle...

"I'll send an SOS to the world I'll send an SOS to the world I hope that someone gets my Message in a bottle..."

I just had the worst run of my life - I'm positive of it.

On my schedule was a mere 8 miles. After 3 miles I was exhausted, my legs felt like lead, but I pushed on, thinking it would get better. I got to my turn around point and headed back. I had to stop twice for just a few seconds to stretch a little and to catch my breath...

WTF?!?!? I felt like I hadn't run in weeks! I didn't even finish my 8 miles. I cut it short by a mile. It was just too much. I even tried to push myself to finish the last mile - telling myself it was an end of marathon simulation and I had to push myself to keep going.

Nope.

That didn't work.

The other side of my brain spoke up and said, "Cut it short, prevent injury, your form is all over the place! Besides, 7 miles isn't too shabby at MP anyway." And I did average my MP for the run, but it was just torture.

I am trying to figure out what has caused this to happen. I think I know what it is and I will be fine by the marathon. I probably did something I wasn't supposed to do... but it was a good thing...

I donated blood.

Now normally when I do this, I have never had any problems running the next day. Today, though, you'd have thought I'd never run in my life! A painful experience all around and it is not settling well on my mind. Not what I needed a week before the big day...

One more MP run on Wednesday and a couple of recovery runs...I sure hope they feel better than this run...

Has anyone else ever suffered in a run like this before?