Setback

The good news is that I don’t have to fly to Dublin on Friday. The whole meeting has been cancelled, and I’m off the hook. The bad news is that it probably is irrelevant as far as my training is concerned. I’ve once again managed to pick up some bug, and I really don’t feel like running at the moment, not for 100 meters, and definitely not for 20 miles.

I set out on Wednesday for 9 miles with 6x600 repeats. After doing 6x1200 last week, that didn’t faze me, but I soon discovered that speedwork is never easy, and I struggled from the third repeat onwards. To put me even further off, my HRM died on me during the fifth repeat. The watch unit still displayed some data, but it didn’t get a signal from the chest strap anymore. As a result of that, the fifth repeat was cut short, while I tried to revive the bloody thing. To my surprise that actually worked, and I could do a sixth repeat. Since the fifth repeat had been short I thought about extending the final one, but as soon as I hit the 600 mark I really had enough. What didn’t help was that I had underestimated the weather; it was quite cold, and being caught by the rain twice definitely didn't do me any good, and I didn’t feel too comfortable in my flimsy singlet. If that was responsible for me feeling progressively worse as the day wore on or if I had already picked up the relevant germs I don’t know, but I felt really crap last night. My stomach was unhappy, and I felt cold all the time, though oddly enough I didn’t have a temperature.

I wasn’t sure if I should go running this morning, but decided to go out, because a) I couldn’t sleep anyway and b) I wanted to gauge the state of my body. We’ve had storms all night, but when I left home the rain had subsided and only the wind remained. Unfortunately one mile later it returned, and I was drenched once again, not the best thing in my already weakened state. I was a bit better prepared than the day before; I wore a t-shirt and running tights (which Niamh had begged me never to display in public, but anyone who sees me running in those conditions would see me as completely bonkers anyway), but it didn’t do a lot of good. I struggled home, and 6 miles felt like 16. My HR was about 10 bpm higher than a run at this effort level should produce, a definite sign that I’m not ok.

I will have to decide soon if I go out for a run tomorrow. My guess is that even if I decide to go running, it won’t be for 20 miles. It’s not a big deal. As long as I recover over the weekend I’ll do the 20 on Monday morning, which is exactly 3 weeks before the marathon, the recommended day for the last long run. That way I won’t miss out on any of my long runs. It means this week’s mileage will be reduced, but I doubt it will have any effect whatsoever come marathon day.

4 Oct: 9 miles, 1:09, 7:40 pace, including 5.5x600 repeats
5 Oct: 6 miles, 56:44, 9:27 pace, including 8x100 strides