Day 201 Thursday 19th July 3.3 miles : miles to date 1314.4 Timing as they say is everything. After a rain free albeit not sunny day, I decided to go out for tonight's run at 8 pm, having missed the club due to lack of shorts. At exactly the half way point in the middle of a field with thigh high grass, the rain poured and within seconds I was soaked. At almost the exact point I returned to my mates place in my sopping wet clothes, it stopped. Fortunately Mrs.Mate was on hand with a towel, as I stripped off in their porch, flashing at the passing cars. The schedule was a gonna tonight. I was tired, lethargic and my legs felt like stone. Whilst I have had a few faster runs, I don't think that was the problem. After yesterdays eleven odd miler, I was so long getting changed and dry, I didn't eat a thing. I had gone out on an empty tank which was fine, as that's a good way to force your body to use fat stores for energy. You don't want that to happen in a race, but inevitably it does as the body cant take on and store enough carbohydrates in a long race such as a marathon to stop the body using fat. The body produces lactic acid whenever it breaks down carbohydrates for energy. The faster you break down glucose and glycogen the greater the formation of lactic acid. At rest and submaximal exercise, the body relies mainly on fats for fuel. However, when you reach 50% of maximum capacity, the threshold intensity for most recreational exercise programs, the body "crosses over" and use's increasingly more carbohydrates to fuel exercise. The more you use carbohydrates as fuel, the more lactic acid you produce and eventually when that runs out, you use fat which is far less efficient at converting into energy. The problem was that after the run, I had to eat and I didn't for another five hours and that really hit home on tonight's run where I crawled around not enjoying myself. Lesson well and truly learnt.