You've Got Some 'Splainin'

I'm at a loss.

About a month ago, I came back from my Eastern Canada road trip.  While I was there, a heat wave going on and the running was extremely hard.  I attempted all of my scheduled runs, but found I could not complete them at the targeted pace.  I accepted that.

My first week back, I nailed the tempo.  All was good.  Or so I thought.

Since that time, 4 weeks, I haven't been able to hit my targets, finishing up 15-25 secs/mile off... instead of a 7:45, I'm now hitting a 8:10/mile.

I'm looking back at the last few months wondering what happened.  I'm not sure what changed.  My diet was interrupted during the trip, but has returned to mostly the same.  The temperature has been warm, but others in the clinic are hitting or getting close to their targets.  I don't feel my level of effort has changed and I continue to push through each of the runs.

After VIM I felt so confident I'd get my BQ for Victoria.  Following my return from Peru, I was nailing my tempo runs and PB'ing some of my speed workouts.  But, these last few weeks have been very difficult for me mentally.

Tomorrow, I'm changing up my venue for my tempo.  I'm doing a beach run instead of the regular UBC area.  I'm targeting a 8:05... not great, but better than I've done in a month.

Finally, I've been reluctant to blog, as the impetus was to be an inspiration.  I didn't see my current performance to be at all inspirational.  But after speaking to a reader about this capturing the ups and downs, I decided to pen this entry.

Note: I'm planning to do a quick update after my tempo run.

Update:  I did my 10 mile tempo run.  Went down to Jericho/Kits area, nice cool-ish day.  I ended up with 8:00.  I'm pretty happy.  I have some ways to go, but at least it's an improvement from my previous efforts.