Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Are we nearly tapering yet?

On each of my last three marathons, I have faced pretty much the same problem during my taper: I got sick. Before Belfast it was a stomach bug, before the 3-country marathon I had a cold, and before Connemara I caught whatever bug was going round the kids’ playgroup at that time. Why am I mentioning this? Firstly, because I’m already dreading getting sick during the taper again, and secondly because I’ve got a cold. It’s just a head cold, and I managed to drag myself out of the bed and onto the road every morning, but it was a struggle. I’m taking Vitamin C and Echinacea, and I tend to feel ok in the mornings (which is why I can still go out and run) and worse in the evenings (which is why I feel like crap right now). It passes the neck test, i.e. all the symptoms are at or above the neck (sore throat, stuffy nose, headache), but I really wished it went away. Or should I be glad to get it now, rather than 2 days before the marathon?

As I’ve said, my training hasn’t been affected yet. I managed 14 miles at a decent pace on Monday. In fact, I didn’t even try to run sub 8:00, especially considering that I had Sunday’s speed workout in my legs, but felt pretty good after a mile or two, when I forgot about my cold. The weather was fine for the first 12 miles, and then the heavens opened, leaving me soaked to the bones. Which isn’t the best thing to happen when you’ve got a cold already, but at least I was close to home at that point. The weather got worse during the day, and last night we had gale force winds and very heavy rain, which kept me from sleeping half the night. I kept thinking that I wouldn’t be able to run in that weather. It would have been far too dangerous. Whenever the wind blows like that, I find a few broken branched scattered on the road, and twice last year whole tree fell over. You just couldn’t risk running in those conditions. Luckily the storm abated at some stage in the middle of the night, and by 7am it was surprisingly calm, with no wind whatsoever. I went out for 6 recovery miles, which were definitely needed, because the legs were exceptionally stiff. I guess it’s a belated reminder from Sunday.

I was planning on another speed session tomorrow, but will have to wait and see how I feel.

18 Sep: 14 miles, 1:51, 7:55 pace
19 Sep: 6 miles, 55:17, 9:12 pace

4 comments:

  1. Yep, it's getting to be that time of year, isn't it? I was thinking about colds when I was visiting the preschool today - I usually pick one up from the little sweeties in the fall. I'm going to try really hard to avoid that till after the marathon!

    I hope you feel better soon - I always think running helps clear everything out.

    We haven't had a good storm yet, but we've had some solid downpours. Luckily, they haven't happened during my run yet!

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  2. Hang in there, with little ones we can never bank on being well. DO the best you can and take care of yoruself. You may want to become more concious of your hand washing habits!!!

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  3. Oddly, the more I run the more I seem to avoid getting a cold. I can't remember the last one (watch, now I'll get sick tonight).

    Cheer up old Thomas. You'll beat it and be in the best shape of your life come marathon day.

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  4. Halls has these drops that are vitamin C and echinacea...I swear by these and take them as a preventative measure. Hope you feel better....

    Glad to hear that Cian is fine.

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