Bonking on a 10-mile run

In the two and half years I've been a father, I think I've done a pretty good job of not letting life interfere with my running. Outside of Noah's first week on this planet, I've not missed a run for any reason that had to do with me being a dad.

But I do find myself missing many meals when its my turn to keep Noah - its hard to cook for yourself and entertain a two-year-old at the same time. Often, I find myself eating before or after I have Noah. That kind of eating habit caught up to me on my Sunday run.

I had Noah from 10 am to 2. Before I picked him up, I had a cup of coffee from Starbucks and a cranberry scone. When I dropped him off, I bought groceries and had a Cliff Bar. At 4:30, having had less than 500 calories the entire day, I went out for a 10-mile run.

Two blocks into the run, I was like, "What am I doing?" I rallied somewhat as my body used up the final sources of carbs I had in me, but by Mile 5, I was pre-bonking, and by Mile 6, I was officially bonking. Maintaining an 8:30 min/mile was all the sudden very hard to do, and I was flirting with 9:00 min/mile pace for much of the last three miles.

I think two things were at play here. 1) I was in a calorie deficit before the run began. 2) The night before I had a cheesy lasagna from Macaroni Grill. (I think my sluggishness had more to do with the dairy than the lack of calories - but in combination, my legs never had a chance.)

I know from past runs that me and dairy do not get along. So, before my 4:30 run Sunday, I hadnt eaten anything tangible in 18 hours and what I had eaten was dairy. During the run, I never felt stressed cardio-vascularwise (is that a word?), but I felt very sluggish, especially mentally. It's like my mind would not recruit enough muscle fibers to run like I'm used to running. I wasn't breathing hard, I just didn't feel like running. At. All.

Today's splits:

1 -9:34
2 - 8:17
3 - 8:08
4 - 7:54
5 - 8:43
6 - 8:16
7 - 8:36
8 - 8:54
9 - 8:35
10 - 8:57
10.3 - 3:04