Setback

My 15-mile walk this morning was an exercise in misery.  I did everything wrong--seriously, I could not have done a worse job if I'd set out to.

First problem (at least I found out in time) was that Trudy's doesn't open for breakfast until 9:00; so much for an early start.  I left my office parking lot at 6:49 and got to Trudy's at about 9:02.  The walk there wasn't bad at all.  I did fine with no water, no NPR, no music.  And here's what I had for breakfast:  the Tex-Mex Eggs Benedict, a biscuit with gravy, about half a basket of chips, two or three glasses of water, and probably 6-7 cups of coffee.  (My waiter graciously pointed out that they were "small cups.") I was operating under the assumption that I could eat whatever I wanted because I'd easily walk it off, which was truu enough, but what I hadn't contemplated was the concept of "food as fuel." Can you imagine walking the second 7.5 miles with the above stuff coursing through (or should I say, festering in) your body?  I kept thinking back to the marathons I've watched, where they hand out orange slices and water. Oh, I would have killed to have traded in my breakfast for orange slices and water.

My walk there was just under 2 hours, 15 minutes; coming back, it was about 2 hours and 40 minutes.  Hotter and more humid, of course, and I was already kind of maxed out from the first half of the walk, but I was not in good shape.  Three or so miles in, I just had to stop for water.  I bought two small bottles at a CVS; the first one was brain-freezingly cold and after downing half of it, I dumped the rest on my neck and chest.  The second one I carried around til it was a little warmer, and downed it pretty quickly too.  After that, I got incredibly parched, more than I was before I had ANY water. The last two miles were hard and awful.  Of course I flashed forward to my marathon, and figured if it was this hard at mile 13, what would it be like at mile 25, but I can assure you, biscuits and gravy, cheese and eggs will NOT be on my pre-marathon menu. 

By the time I got home, I wasn't just tired, or sore....I was sick.  Sun-and-heat sick, and crappy food sick.  I took a wonderful three-hour nap.

In short:  it was a terrible walk, probably my worst of the year so far, but I did learn from it.

I knew I'd be too tired to want to go out tonight, so decided to stay home and rent a movie: Friends with Kids, mostly because Jon Hamm (of Mad Men fame, though he's much cuter as Don Draper) is in it.   I don't remember what the reviews said about it, but it's awful.  I'm about halfway through it, and there hasn't been a genuine moment yet.  Banks is looking at me plaintively, and right now a walk with him sounds much more enticing than sitting through the rest of this.

I'll be off tomorrow and back in business on Monday.