It was a short long run week, coming off the 16 mile effort last weekend. I have had a pretty good run week, and was feeling quite content after a terrific long run last weekend. That being said today’s run wasn’t all that good. It was a brilliant sunny, but windy day. Spring has finally arrived. All the birds are out, singing and flitting from branch to branch. I think I stopped about 6 times just to bird watch. yeah, it was that kind of run. I started out with fueling issues, then some lack of fuel issues around mile 8. Unfortunately for me I was out of my regular gels, and only had caffeine GU Roctanes. hmmm. Well they are called training runs for a reason. You need to try out various things and see what works and what doesn’t. I can honestly say taking a gel laced with 35mg of caffeine while slightly dehydrated is not a fun thing. It was a really weird tingly feeling, and a head detached from body experience. That was with half. To hell with that. You could not pay me money to take that again. I like gels, they work. they are easy to carry, and I have been training with them. So, lesson learned. I will stock up on my regular GU, or powerbar vanilla gels. As my brain zapped away, racing on caffeine and carbs I wrapped up my run. But the day’s fun was not over. Mile 11, and I started to get some discomfort. Not a big deal. Something is always unhappy at some point during a long run. Last week I started the run with some shin pain. Gone by mile 2, and has not been seen or heard from since. Week before it was foot pain, gone too. I am pretty used to this and often think nothing of it. Well today was just not my day. It became apparent my run was over. done. I am chalking up the whole damn run as crap, even though I had some nice moments out in the Spring air watching birds. Guess I’ll see what running feels like come Monday.