New day, new run

Yesterday I did a measly 3 miles - and struggled through every friking yard of it.  Today I did 4 miles and enjoyed every inch of it.  What was the difference?

Yesterday was partly sunny, in the high 20's, and windy, making for a nice wind chill factor.  I know that I was not happy about the wind.  Today on the other hand, is cloudy, light snow, and enough breeze to make the snow come down at a 45degree angle.

I had no mojo yesterday.  My last run was 4 days prior, a good but hard 8 miles.  Then it got really cold out and on Saturday with plans for another 7-8 miler, I crawled back into bed when I saw that the temp was 9degrees with a 15mph wind.  Forget about it.  I really don't need to put up with stupid weather conditions...  So yesterday, with the weather more or less reasonable (it was, less the wind) and having not run in a few days, became one of those days when I feel that "I really need to get out there".  My legs were heavy, my breathing was labored, my pace was out of sync - not a damn thing was right.  Plus I almost got run over by a car in my neighborhood; my fault since I wasn't paying attention and literally running (shuffling, stomping - not really running) in the middle of the road.  My bad.

But the bottom line is that I felt like I had no juice.  Was it lack of fuel?  Possibly the wrong kind?  I had had something for breakfast; something very healthy:  greek yogurt with blueberries and a spoonful of granola. Plus a hard boiled egg.  Sounds like a nice balance...?  But then after the run, I felt crappy.  I also didn't feel that "ahhhhh" feeling that I'm supposed to get after a run.

Today I started with a simple piece of whole wheat english muffin with peanut butter.  An hour later I pushed off for my run and I felt great.  I had a good, if not a great, run. Light snow, some breeze, the path was totally covered with snow and only a couple other footprints.  Nice.

Was it the pre-run fuel?  the wind?  other mojo affecting bs?

There is one thing that I am very proud of.  During my sucky run yesterday I had several opportunities to cut the run short, i.e. trim it down from 3 miles to 2.5, 1.5, or even just 1 mile.  But I put my head into it and I did the miles that I intended to run from the start.  I don't know if that is good or bad - I don't know if I benefited physically from having pushed myself to do the entire run or if, since I was not into it, if it was actually detrimental, but mentally it was very rewarding.  While in the shower I remember thinking "I did it anyway", with a smile...  For that reason alone I'm glad that I did it.  Even better that the following day was a great run day.