6/9 - 50 minutes incl. 3200m (5k DNF)

Ahh, the ignominy. First DNF for a good long while, although there has been at least one DNS that I can remember. As it turns out, not nearly recovered from last week's travels, and probably not as fit as I would have liked to delude myself into thinking I was either. The last two days of afternoon exhaustion were ample evidence that I'm currently in a rut in terms of being well-rested. Slept in this morning, 3 hrs. later than normal, but as ever this is fool's gold and doesn't address the underlying problem. On top of that, felt every ill-advised step of Wednesday's far too strenuous track session which in the clear light of hindsight was nothing more than piling on. Should know better by now of course. What it all added up to today was a stinker. Settled in near the back at the start and to my chagrin found that the pack was running embarrassingly slow, to the tune of a 79 first lap. Made a couple of moves to get near the front, next 3 laps in 3:40 or so. Soon after this I found myself in the lead, even though I was cranking out nothing more than 76 second laps by this point. Two laps of that before I was passed just before 3k. Kilo splits of 3:10, 3:06, 3:08 FWIW. 200m later I heard a split of 10:02 and decided right there it wasn't worth the effort to flog myself for another 4 laps just to run 15:45. In truth it likely would have been 15:50 or slower had I soldiered on. Who the fuck cares about doing that. Surprised myself a bit at how quickly I went from contesting the thing to calling it a day but it was truly pointless. Some wind, kind of warm, but not nearly enough of either to explain the slow slow pace from the field. Felt the underlying exhaustion on the puttering cooldown, and the long time it took to muster up the motivation to even do it. Felt the effects of all the crazy excursions and idiotic track session in my legs, esp. calves which are both shredded at the moment. Also, the left QL muscle just above the SI joint has been stiff for a few days now. It had bothered me a bit before the trip to AZ but not so much during the trip. Now it's back, and I have to think running a track has something to do with it. Overall, I've certainly bit off more than I can chew and find myself in a noticeable hole. The track 10k a few weeks back left more of a mark than I'd like to admit given how slow it was. The trip in and out of the canyon and up and down Humphreys Peak are self-evident in their effects but still well worth it for the experience. It feels like I can count the number of good nights sleep I've gotten in the last month on one hand. Certainly compared to a year ago I'm nowhere near as fit as I was, or at least unable to access the fitness due to exhaustion.