Track Tuesdays

My belly has been visited by swarms of butterflies throughout the day. I have tried not to think much about it, but I am failing. Now that I am home from work and am counting down the minutes (90) until I have to leave. I have had a few fails in the past month and I realize that it is time to start kicking my butt again. So track workouts it is.
But first, let's recap the fails:
Light at the End of the Tunnel. As you may recall from my previous post, this is 13.1 miles up a hill then back down, and I fell apart coming down the hill. No good.
Next up, The Northwest Passage marathon. Only a week after the Tunnel, and I was still feeling wiped out for most of that week. I just couldn't push myself to move very fast. Then around mile 6 or 7 I started throwing up, which slowed me down more. Nothing makes you feel better than an 8 hour marathon when you have a stomach bug.
Still feeling drained, I attempted the God's Country 50k the following weekend. I stayed in the back of the pack, walked the hills, but just didn't have what it took to keep going. I was tired and had no energy. I called it a day at mile 13.

It has been a week since that last fail and I have yet to run. It is time to get back to kicking ass, well my ass anyway. It may be a while before I have what it takes to kick the ass of others. And, no offense others, but your ass isn't really my goal.
I am giving myself a pass on the marathon with the stomach flu, but as for the other two I think I should have been able to push myself harder. But I don't push myself all that hard most of the time. I feel like most distance running is just finding a comfortable pace that eats up the miles. But I want to start pushing myself harder, to be faster and stronger. I want to finish marathons before the finish line festivities are over and the spectators go home. And I want to run difficult trails. I know that this will take more effort on my part and it will probably get uncomfortable, more uncomfortable than a stomach full of butterflies.