Let me tell you a story. I slept about 4 hours last night. I had to get up early for a phone call with the UK team. I have a sore throat and a cough. I keep thinking it might go away, but then it doesn’t. My ankles are tight. My shins hurt. My right knee feels a little sloppy. I sucked down a quart of orange juice before heading out and it’s not sitting well. My nose is constantly running everywhere… over my lips, down my chin and onto my shirt, except when I mistakenly breathe in through my nose and send a shot of the hot salty mucus down the back of my throat. I keep feeling like I could lose the orange juice at any moment. I almost throw up into my mouth a couple times, but manage to keep it down.

Of course, almost none of that is true. I really don’t have much of an excuse for my poor performance today. Sure, I may not have slept as well as I wanted, and I may be a little sore, but it could be a whole lot worse. So I still need to figure out how to get it together again. Last May I was running pretty well before I stopped running and only rode the bike. How did I lose so much (mentally)?

The only good thing about today’s “run” was the consistency, but I think it’s easier to be consistent when you’re barely jogging. I keep feeling like I’m close to being able to really run this route, but it never materializes. I hope it does soon or I may be out of luck.