Running 46:22 [3] 7.7 km (6:01 / km)
shoes: 200809 NB Absorb EX 12
An early morning run. I was not thrilled about getting up and doing it, especially because I have been uncomfortably sick this past week. I have felt weak and unusually unenthused about being cold.
Anyway, today's run was a low intensity river loop with a significant street component along a route I do not often take. Snow was falling while I ran, and several inches had accumulated over the previous day.
I had a very curious experience at minute 34 of my run, where I suddenly and drastically felt a total loss of energy. I felt like I had hit the wall - like my unfortunate experience at West Point, May 2008. I stopped for a few minutes and paused to try to regain my composure, then finished my run at a slightly lower intensity.
I was not pushing that hard (I estimate 5:40 min/km), and my breathing rate was 4/4 and 3/3 throughout the run. I was not out of breath, as I would experience from running too fast and being unable to sustain that pace. My muscles did not experience any discomfort or cramping. The best explanation I can arrive it is some combination of the following
- There was a non-trivial amount of snow even in the plowed and cleared sections along my run. I was then doing significantly more work than I expected displacing snow. Also, in the minutes leading up to my breakdown, I had diverted from cleared sections and pushed through deeper drifts.
- I had a demanding bike session on Saturday that may have depleted my glycogen reserves. In retrospect, I did not eat that much between Saturday night and Monday morning (though I did eat a burrito, among other things), so I may not have completely replenished.
- My strength was depleted over the past week from my cold more seriously than I expected, and I have not fully recovered.
- My body temperature fell (perhaps from waiting at cross walks), slowing my metabolism (I'm really reaching here).
So, yeah. Dunno. I'm attributing much of this to the fact that it was snowing, and such running conditions are relatively foreign to me. While running, I listened to an exegesis of Psalm 17.