Ups and downs

After the swampfest of the Saturday workout, it was on to the Sunday long run and the 15 miles I had on the schedule. Luckily I had managed to spread the word around and was very happy to see about ten other guys rock up to Old Bell to keep me company. The first ten miles passed pretty smoothly as we all chatted along comfortably. I had staged some water bottles at the halfway mark of the loop which were very much appreciated and the fast rising heat and humidity was being kept at bay. By the end of it we were all strung out along Sardis Road however, just wanting to be done! I weighed myself before and after the run and despite ingesting a good amount of water during and immediately after the run I had lost 5lbs! With the girls no longer due back until Monday and no visit to the office required like I'd had to all day on the Saturday, I thoroughly enjoyed recuperating on my couch for the rest of the day in front of the Tour and the World Cup!!

My next workout was planned for the Wednesday. I was hoping that two days of easy miles since the hard weekend efforts would have been sufficient to at least have given me a shot at successfully completing the workout but I was wrong! 4 repeats into a planned 8*1k workout and I was done. I literally stopped and lay down by the side of the track, just wanting to sleep! As I jogged back to my car I was not feeling good about this workout at all. All the doubts about overtraining were creeping back in and I felt so weak I was mentally arranging doctors' appointments so that I could go and get my iron levels, etc tested.

Thursday and Friday, however, the weather changed dramatically! It was suddenly back in the 70s with less humidity. I at least felt human on these two days of running and was ready to give the 4 mile race a good effort on the Saturday. And a good effort indeed I gave. I managed to run a 4 mile pr of 20:51 and came 2nd in front of Bob Marchinko for the first ever time! All of a sudden the confidence is back. Three days earlier I had written myself off! I need to stop doing that! Coach was not surprised by the outcome of Saturday's race, commenting on the consistency I've been able to maintain through all the ups and downs of this cycle.

Sunday I had another 15 miler on the schedule but I was far too tired from the race to even contemplate doing that so an easy 4 it was and now in 'active taper' mode for the next couple of weeks before the 10k on the 30th where I'll get Bob Marchinko again as we represent the Queen City up at US Masters!