Revelation

This past Friday I woke up with a terrible head cold. By 8am my nose was already red from blowing and I felt like I had been hit in the head with a hammer. Normally I would have been sad about this state of affairs but at the moment it is even more critical because I'm on such a strict training regimen. The next day was to be my next 'Long' run. The day when you push yourself to run further than you ever have before. (This happens once a week.) It was time to run 8 miles.

I spent Friday dosing myself with vitamin C, burning eucalyptus oil, rubbing vicks vaporub on my skin, eating olbas throat lozenges and sleeping. Oh, and blowing my nose, coughing, wiping my tearing eyes and trying to clear my blocked ears. Yuck. I wondered what I should do about my run. Over and over again, people have warned me about over training, but strangely this only serves to emphasize how hard I have to train. If people are so prone to working too hard, surely I can't get by with a lackadaisical attitude. (Yes I know that is skewed logic.)

When Saturday morning rolled around, at the urging of a runner-friend Susie, my Nana (channeled through my Uncle Tom) and one of the many running books I have bought, I dragged myself out of bed. My symptoms were all above the neck and so I resolved to get to the running spot and at least to run one mile. I couldn't face the idea that the effort I have put in to date would be wasted. So armed with 10 tissues and a liter bottle of water, I headed to Almaden Lake park.

I got a little turned around on the way there and arrived late so I missed the introduction to the route. I didn't know where the water stop was. We start in waves according to our pace and my group was about to leave so I joined in at the back and decided to take it really easy and just see how I felt. I got stuck in behind two girls that were meandering along, chatting away with ease. I decided to keep with their pace.

And here comes the revelation. I felt great! I wasn't pushing my pace for once and I found that I could jog along with relative comfort at a consistent pace for a long time. The 1 and 2 mile markers came and went and I was still happy. I kept on the heels of my pace makers ( I think they thought I was stalking them) and I made it to the water stop at the 3 mile marker with relative ease. Amazing! I've found every long run before this frustrating and exhausting. Unhappy with my slow pace I push myself to go faster and end up with a heart rate of 178 for an extended length of time. I don't actually go that much faster on average because I have to slow down to recover from going too fast. And I do this despite being told differently. The long runs should be run at a slower pace than other training. You should be able to talk to your neighbor. But I am usually just so frustrated that I have to run SO slowly in order to be able to talk that after about 10 seconds I speed up. This time, I allowed myself the luxury of going slow ( I was sick after all) and lo and behold I discovered what it means to run long distance.

I did turn around at the 3 mile marker instead of running all 8 miles. I figured that was pushing it enough given the circumstances. 6 miles was quite an achievement I think, considering I had gotten out of bed intending to just run one. Now I just need to remember on my next long run, slow and steady. Check out my run here