Oh me 'ead!

With the recession upon us it is time to remember the true meaning of Christmas. It’s not to spend ridiculous amounts of money, but to get raucously drunk during the office party. At least that’s the impression I got on Friday, and, trying not to be a scrooge, I joined in the spirit. But having gotten up at 5:30 am I didn’t last the distance and did a Cinderella; I stumbled home just before midnight.

Thankfully Maia chose this night to start sleeping through again, but unsurprisingly I wasn’t feeling my very best on Saturday. After heaving myself out of bed and fixing breakfast for the boys (they did not care much for my headache), I got ready for 8 miles on the road. I was grateful that the shortest run of the week was in order. It was rather cold, but I didn’t quite register that in my state. After an hour in the cold crisp air my head was in much better shape, if not entirely recovered. I did a double take when I stepped on the weighing scales. I know I spent the time from 5 pm to 11 pm eating and drinking non-stop, and I’m perfectly aware that Guinness contains a lot of calories, but to put on 6 pounds in 24 hours seemed rather excessive. Six pounds! At least half of them were gone a day later, but looking at it the other way I could argue that half of them are still on me somewhere. Maybe it was that extra layer of fat that prevented me from freezing during my redemption run because a couple of hours later it started snowing heavily, much to the kids’ excitement. It didn’t stay though.

Luckily my head was fully recovered today as another fartlek workout was on the menu, and I don’t think I could have pulled that off with a hangover. Today I opted for half mile repeats with one minute in-between. That way I would be able to run a bit faster than on Wednesday, and there was less opportunity for the mind to start drifting and me slowing down due to loss of focus. My timing was not the best, within 2 minutes of the start it started hail stoning, and I got a painful beaning for the next 10 minutes. It cleared up afterwards, and apart from a short and quick rain shower, it stayed dry. After Friday’s massive storm the road was still flooded on two occasions, but it wasn’t too deep and my feet seemed to dry pretty quickly both times.

I was quite happy with the workout. I did 13 half-miles at an average pace of 6:45, and even though I tried to run them all at the same effort level, the last one was the fastest. That was quiet a bit faster than on Wednesday; let’s see how I fare next week.

13 Dec

8 miles, 1:05:18, 8:09 pace, HR 146
badly hungover

14 Dec

10.3 miles, 1:16:46, 7:27 pace, HR 159
13x800, avg. pace 6:45

Weekly Mileage: 84+