A Small Setback

I’m partially upset at them moment – only at my stomach, and only because it caught a bug; the rest of me is reasonably ok. It started on Tuesday night, when first Cian spent some time hanging out over the toilet bowl, and then Maia started screaming after throwing up in the very early hours of Wednesday, which left me with the task of cleaning baby/toddler and bed on my own because Niamh either pretended to sleep or actually managed to sleep through the racket. It may have been the latter, because she sounded amazed when I told her the night’s events. Then again, she is a trained actress.

Anyway, I felt perfectly ok on Wednesday morning, but after the fairly hard bike ride on Tuesday opted for a swim session rather than a run, to give the quads that are still in the rebuilding process after being torn to shreds in Connemara some time off. Having said that, as sore as the legs had felt straight after the ride, they seemed perfectly ok the next day. I do remember reading that cyclist can train hard day after day, very much opposed tor runners, and my extremely limited experience seems to carry that out.

However, come Wednesday evening and both Niamh and me were feeling absolutely awful. The kids seemed to have recovered and it was very much our turn now. One dreadful night later it was a rather easy decision to forgo the morning run, even for me. I don’t think I would have made it out of our driveway without collapsing. Unfortunately we had to drive the twins to Tralee for a piano assessment at the Kerry School of Music, and I used the time to sneak to the shopping centre and spend a fortune on their birthday presents. I really did not feel like it, but it was our only opportunity. The birthdays are on Tuesday and we’re going away over the weekend. That task knocked me out sufficiently to head back to bed for an hour over lunch, and Niamh drove me into work for the afternoon – I had not even suggested cycling.

Just like the kids, we both recovered quickly and today things are much better. I felt brave (read foolish) enough to head out for an easy 5 mile run, and while I didn’t feel too good I kept a close eye on the HR and that was fine at all times. I did sweat buckets though, and it was not a warm morning. However, I’m confident that particular episode is pretty much behind us; unless the twins, who haven’t been affected so far, have to go through it as well, in which case our weekend trip away to Trabolgan might be less fun than anticipated. Having said that, my stomach is still not back to normal and anything fancier than toast causes a new wave of discomfort and nausea any time I try to eat.

And of course I was only joking when I asked Niamh if it’s ok to pack 3 pairs of runners. Like she pointed out, who on Earth would even contemplate taking three pairs of running shoes on a 3-day break? Who indeed! I’ll just run my planned tempo run in normal runners then. Just like I had planned all along. Obviously.

21 Apr

50 minutes swimming, 29 km cycling

22 Apr

0. Bad. Ugh.

23 Apr

5 miles, 40:15, 8:03 pace, HR 144