I had been sick with a head cold toward the end of last week, and it had persisted across the weekend. Come Monday, I was back at work but not feeling at all motivated for my lunchtime group run; speedwork. 6*800m intervals. Blergh. I hadn't run since the previous Wednesday because I was struggling to breathe. But I dragged myself off to run, promising my body that I'd be easy on it. As it often does, the run was a great pick-me-up; I ran faster than I had planned and felt much better for having run.
I'd seen Toni's virtual run and planned on racing it, but the string of injuries and illness I've had over the last few weeks had left me thinking that I wouldn't be able to race. After the boost from the lunchtime run, I thought why not! and decided to run again that afternoon, on the gym treadmills.
By the time I got to the gym my legs were feeling pretty heavy, the speedwork had taken it out of them, so I decided on a progressive run. I also was dressed for running outside in winter, in thick tights and a long sleeved shirt. I started fairly slowly, trying to get my legs comfortable, and while I never really succeeded I managed to keep pushing the speed and finished, hot, sweaty and exhausted, in 27.10. I was pretty happy with the time considering I was doubling up runs (and fast ones too!) but this was the exact same time I had run 5km at parkrun a few weeks earlier, not even a second faster! I wish I had pushed a tiny bit harder to finish just a little bit quicker!
This is only blurry because I was so sweaty, I swear!
I am glad I raced, but boy did it take it out of me! I still feeling sluggish and heavy-legged. A slow recovery day yesterday, and some rolling (with my new friend PVC pipe) hasn't helped much, and my run today was sloooower than normal too. My usual pre-work run, which loops around the National Museum, is blocked off while the museum is being renovated. I ran through part of the city west precinct instead, but there are too many side streets and traffic crossings for me to run during peak hour. Just a crappy run in general.
Parliament House and the National Museum of Australia
So I am home tonight, I've stretched out my legs, wearing compression guards, feeling a bit sore and sorry. Two speed sessions on a Monday seems to be a recipe for crappy runs for the rest of the week, but I'm glad that I was able to run in my first ever virtual race!
No comments:
Post a Comment