There as something strange going on with my body. On Sunday
the weighing scales reported 147.6 pounds. Nice. 24 hours later, and after a
perfectly normal day, the same scales had me a whopping 5 pound heavier at
152.6! I was so staggered that I had to weigh myself again, just
to prove to myself that I had not just imagined that.
During Monday the issue became a little bit clearer as I must
have sprung a leak somewhere and was spending more time on the toilet than I care
to remember; by Tuesday morning I had dropped 3 pounds and another one had
followed by Wednesday, back to baseline (I was probably a little bit dehydrated
on Sunday, hence the lower measurement). I have seen water retention like that twice
before: both time following the days after a long ultra race. On these occasions
some other symptoms were clear as well like swollen ankles, and the cause was of
course obvious. This time round I haven’t noticed any swelling whatsoever and
the cause is a mystery to me.
I know it had been a fairly tough weekend but I have done
significantly harder training before, and in fact on Sunday I had been
marvelling how well my legs had coped with the very hilly 20 mile run when they
displayed no soreness and no signs of fatigue whatsoever!
One other notable thing was the pace for the easy runs on
Monday and Tuesday. I do wear my Garmin on these runs but don’t ever look at it
(it’s too dark to make out the numbers anyway), just record the numbers
afterwards. I did a double take on Monday as this had been the slowest run in a
very long time, yet the effort had been pretty much the same as always. Tuesday
wasn’t much quicker but this time I wasn’t taken by surprise.
I was therefore curious what Wednesday’s evaluation would
bring. It was a little bit windy which might have had a small effect on the numbers,
but certainly no more than that.
Mile 1 6:54 HR 160 Mile 2 6:50 HR 161 Mile 3 6:59 HR 161 Mile 4 6:52 HR 161 Recovery to HR 130: 44 seconds
The pace is pretty much the same as last time, but Good God
that recovery time is just brutal. I noticed it straight away out on the road,
after waiting for 20 seconds the HR was still somewhere around 155 until
finally dropping quickly.
One (hopefully reasonable) explanation is that I am presently
fighting off some bug. Two of the kids are sick at the moment. Apart from that water retention I haven’t got
any symptoms, no headache or stomach ache, no runny nose and I’m not feeling tired
or otherwise affected, but there could still something going on that only shows
up when my body is under stress.
And in the meantime I happened to become another year older. I'm not moving up yet another age group, though that isn't far off. Niamh keeps insisting that I am now in the second half of my life and should act accordingly, but so far I have managed to keep resisting.
And in the meantime I happened to become another year older. I'm not moving up yet another age group, though that isn't far off. Niamh keeps insisting that I am now in the second half of my life and should act accordingly, but so far I have managed to keep resisting.
- 27 Jan
- 10 miles, 1:23:18, 8:19 pace, HR 136
- 28 Jan
- 10 miles, 1:21:40, 8:10 pace, HR 140
- 29 Jan
- 11.8 miles, 1:28:39, 7:30
pace, HR 150
incl. 4 mile eval: 6:54, 6:50, 6:59, 6:52, 44 sec recovery
Happy Birthday, Thomas! I haven't been running much lately and gained 8 pounds, if that's any reconciliation:)
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday kid. Tell Niamh you are acting accordingly - running is the result of your "mid-life" crisis. The water retention is another symptom - varicose veins are next!
ReplyDeleteI've seen large weight changes overnight based on salt. One day I weighed myself and was up 4 lbs from the previous day, even though I ate very normal. As I pondered my day, I realized I ate the salt at the bottom of a bag of pretzels the evening before, probably 4 tablespoons. Within two days the weight was gone.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday young man. Spread Niamh's delicious birthday cake out over a couple of weeks and you won't stack on any more lbs.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday Thomas!
ReplyDelete