Isn't pasta supposed to be good for you?

Mile 6:   7:11
Mile 7:   7:34
Mile 8:   8:44
Mile 9:   9:31
Mile 10: 8:13

These are the splits of my last five miles of Thursday morning's 10-miler with Team Rogue. I know what you are thinking: "Ah-ha, you ran Mile 6 too fast and you were spent the last four miles of the run."

Wrong.

During this entire run, I just didn't feel right, and felt nothing like I did during Tuesday's 10-miler, when I ran the last 5 miles in sub 7:00-mile pace. To be honest, on Thursday morning, I felt exactly the way I felt during the Portland Marathon. Sluggish. Weak. A little delirious.

So, what's going on here? I'm not real sure. One of the guys I run with at Team Rogue - we call him Geezer - told me after Portland that every long run I have after that should be about correcting mistakes. Like I blogged a few weeks back, I think one of my mistakes is that I drink too much water during the marathon.

But Thursday morning, I didn't drink that much water - maybe less than two cups. This leaves me to glean something from my diet - and I think I've found the culprit: white pasta.

On Tuesday evening, I had the biggest bowl of spaghetti with clam sauce. The day before Portland, I had some dish that included tons of white pasta. Now that I think of it, if I run the day after I eat spaghetti, I've always had terrible runs.

And Thursday morning, I had terrible runs, so to speak, and a terrible run. Physically, I felt the same as I did in Portland. Weak. Sluggish. Disinterested. It was hard to believe that I was the same guy that, on Tuesday, ran 10 miles in 7:15 pace.

Maybe this is what happens when you become an over 40-runner, though I doubt it.

Anyway, long story short: No pasta (unless its wheat) the week before I run a marathon. Don't drink too much water (unless its Chicago 2007 all over again).