Bit of a relapse

Didn't get a chance to run on Friday, after helping out with Trailwalker. Watched the CR5K challenge after two hours sleep on Saturday morning, intending to run in the afternoon, but ended up sleeping from 1pm through to 5:30pm and still feeling wrecked.

Got up on Sunday feeling pretty ordinary, and with a blocked nose and sore throat, which worsened through the day - did the Cross City tunnel walk, though, which was interesting. Not feeling particularly flash this morning, though, so today's going to be another total loss, too.

Damn, I'd give just about anything to get back to 100% again.

Thursday night speed

Down to Centennial Park for Thursday night speed work. Tonight's schedule was 5 x 1km.

Got through a fairly short and painful warm up (sore lower legs, often happens when I haven't run on grass for a while, suspect it's the variable footing working the lower legs in slightly different directions - so not necessarily a bad thing. Gave it away after about 2.7-2.8k, following up with some unenthusiastic drills.

Went through the five reps in 3:33, 3:34, 3:35, 3:34 and 3:33. Pretty happy with that, felt to have pretty good rhythm and form, and pleased to hang on to pace over the last two. Looks like I'm starting to come back.

Gentle 2k warm down, and called it a night. Feeling a bit more optimistic.

Update

Oops, haven't updated in a bit. I have actually been running, but a combination of being busy at work and the set-up of a 'new' PC at home have conspired to keep me occupied.

Monday
Was planning to run in the evening, but the weekend's efforts left me pretty tired and sore, so I elected to take the day off.

Tuesday
My return to speedwork. I think the last of the flu from my chest has gone, with the little chesty wheeze at the end of breaths gone. Decided to test myself at the SW Squad in the evening, which moved to the athletics track at ES Marks. Jogged through a reasonable 4.8k warm up, and got through 12 x 400, the first at 75s, the remainder from 80-85s (tending slower). Wanted to stop after 7, feeling like I was breathing hot lava, and actually said so out loud, but decided to do one more and ended up finishing the session. Stride felt okay, just slow turnover. Bit different running on an actual track.

Wednesday
Ran to work, and elected to take the quickest route via town rather than focus on the prescribed 90 minutes. Felt very beaten up, and took about 5k for the legs to feel 'acceptable'. Garmin suggested around 18k in 1:18, which I thought was probably a bit optimistic. Pretty sore through the morning, but the legs seemed to improve through the day.

Summary
After a weekend of 'maybe I'll give up running' and general despondancy post C2S, I'm now feeling a bit brighter and can see a road back to form coming. Guess I'm probably just down that a really good period of training feels like it's been wasted, almost like doing a good training lead-up to a marathon and then not doing it. Guess it's a confidence thing. I'll do tonight's session, which is 5 x 1km at Moore Park, and hopefully we'll get a decent result going there.

Do feel like I'm starting from scratch, though.

A warm Sunday afternoon

Got out just after 3pm, managing 17.55km in 1:23:46, from home, looping around the Bay Run including the Dog Park and back again. Quads quite sore from yesterday, and felt pretty scrappy over the last 5k. Ave HR 146 (didn't include yesterday's ave HR as it dropped out twice for a couple of minutes).

Am aiming to get back on track with the program this week, although I suspect pace will be off for a week or two.

A shuffling return

Yep, back on the road. Got out at about 1:20 Sat afternoon over the old 10k course from home through Hunter's Hill. 10.05km in 47:48 - pretty ploddy and wasn't great into the headwind over the last couple of km. Still, back on our way again. Still a bit of the bug around, as the uphills proved.

Birthday update

Not a lot to report - flu hasn't really progressed much, and I haven't run at all (I won't until this bug's out of my chest).

Still a bit down, although I'm sure that's mostly due to being ill - typical male, tend to be a bit of a sook when I'm crook. Feeling every one of my 35 years (when the hell did THAT happen) this morning.

The bug strikes back

Right, I'm going to go through this one more time and that's it - getting a bit sick, pardon the pun, of going through this story over and again. It was tough enough on Sunday, but to go through it again at work...

Didn't feel too bad on the morning of C2S. Up around 6, had some brekkie, pottered about, and drove into town with EliseS. Picked up my number and kit, and wandered over to the 'meeting spot' at the Domain. Usual banter, didn't feel too bad through the warm up, etc.

Preferred runner status at C2S is very cool, particularly standing at the intersection of William and College Streets and seeing the assembled throngs.

Grouped up, and BANG, gun went. Felt fairly ordinary along William Street. Was headed up the left tunnel, saw Action deviate right and followed, much to the chagrin of another fellow that I thought I'd left enough room for. He went on and on - sheez, I did apologise, it was a genuine error on my part, deal with it and move on. As if that was going to be the worst thing done that morning.

Felt a bit 'rushed' through the tunnel but settled down okay on the following descent. Felt a bit light-headed on the climb through Edgecliffe and checked the HR, which popped north of 190. Made a mental note to keep an eye on it through the next climb. That was coming out of Bellevue Hill, where it hit 200. I backed off, and it took a while for the HR to recover, and I made the call that this could wait until next year.

Jogged the rest of the event out, including a spell to Heartbreak with fellow CR Phil S who'd had his upper left leg go in the last week of training. Felt like half the field went past by the time I crossed the line on 60:16. Was in a foul mood for the rest of the afternoon, and didn't feel particularly well or interested in socialising.

In hindsight, probably shouldn't have run, but given the assistance in getting the preferred start and running with a team, it was important to me to at least turn up and see how I went - and I reckon 90% of people would have run in the circumstances. Perhaps backing off and just cruising it might have been smarter, but that ain't my way.

Will take a couple of days off now - it's definitely in my chest now - and probably just do some walking to turn the legs over and keep some base level of activity going.

Back on the road

After a couple of flat days without much progress, I made the call today to hit the road and see how things were. At about 3pm, I set off for a lap of the Bay Run. 7.12km in 31.47, ave HR 144. Legs felt great, breathing less so, with the throat not appreciative of the air being forced through it - on the plus side, I'm now comfortable with having a coughing fit and running at the same time. HR was a bit higher than I'm really happy with, still, I was rolling along at 4:28 and had had two cups of coffee (one a large) during the course of the morning.

As long as I run under 54:59 tomorrow. That's all I ask.

Friday morning update

Sorry, posting about illness was giving me the irits, so I didn't.

Summary, as at 8:27am, Friday August 12:
- flu has backed off signficantly, but still tired. Mornings still sluggish, cough and sore throat still present, but nose has stopped running like a tap.
- have not run as yet. Intended to last night and had half a mind to this morning, but with urge to cough still fairly strong decided discretion was the better part of valour and it is now proposed to do a lap of the Bay Run on Saturday morning.

That is all.

Back to work...

Ugh, back at the office. To be frank, don't feel much improved over yesterday, although it may be the overpoweringly depressing effect of returning to work, or possibly even the antibiotics. If anything, my throat seems a little more irritated, but again it's an air-con environment versus the 'natural' air at home.

Did sleep better last night though, and my body temperature seems to be gradually returning to normal. Appetite's still not there, though.

Still on schedule for a half hour jog tomorrow night, though.

Ongoing progress...

Sleep quality overnight was improved (although still not great). Got up a bit after 7 after I felt like I was starting another sweat. Still pretty sluggish for a while in the morning, but after an hour or two actually felt coherent.

The flu now more closely resembles a heavy head-cold, main issue being the slightly woozy head and sore-throat induced coughing. There's some material but it doesn't seem to be originating from my chest, more sinus and throat. I actually had a little bit of appetite this afternoon and took myself down to the Bowen Island Bakery for a pie and cookie for lunch. Not exactly a large meal, but a nice treat, and my sense of taste seems to be returning to normal.

Up to date with my antibiotics, and the aches have gone, so it's back to the office tomorrow (boo!) and hopefully on track for a light 'systems check' jog on Thursday.

Night sweats, and a visit to the doctor

Another tough night of little sleep, with the bonus of early morning night sweats. Man, how much do they suck? That pretty well ruined my sleep-in.

In a particularly spectacular morning haze, I managed to contact the office to call in sick and organise some spreadsheets to be e-mailed to me, plus organise a medical appointment for late in the afternoon. I'm still powered by Nurofen Liquid Capsules and Duro-Tuss, and my new chemical friends took a little while to kick in this morning. I felt cold all morning, periodically emerging from the backdoor to absorb some sun before scuttling back to the study again. As the day wore on, I started to feel half human, although balance on suddenly arising is still a little suspect. Still no appetite - actually, just on that, you know what pisses me off most about being crook like this? Not the lack of appetite, but the changed perception of taste - I normally love turkish bread with a bit of ham and salad, but I can't stomach the way I taste turkish at the moment. It's very upsetting.

Actually walked the couple of hundred metres to the local clinic, where I was told "don't train" (duh). I normally just go to this place for medical certificates if I'm forced to take a Monday or Friday off (personal thing), and it's also physically the closest clinic to home AND it bulk bills. I actually have a half decent rapport with the doctor there, surprising since I'm there maybe once or twice a year, but then again, maybe not, as I'm about half the age of all the other patients I've seen there, and probably about the only one that exercises. We had a comical conversation last year when I dropped in with a bug where he commented that my heart rate didn't seem elevated, rather it was steady and strong. I asked him what it was.
"Around 68"
"Mmm...it's usually in the mid to low 40s"
"Ah. Run, do we?"

Anyway, got the same antibiotics as last time, doc thinks I should be right on top of it in 48 hours provided I take the full course of antibiotics (AND I got this lecture again at home - jeez, you end up missing the last three tablets, cop a relapse, and it's "I told you so" Central!) and take it easy. He also suggested taking tomorrow off work might be smart, a suggestion I had no trouble following.

Truth is, tonight's the best I've felt since Friday - I don't have that 'creeping ice' feeling I've been getting in the evenings, which is a nice change. Still quite 'heady', with coughing and sneezing, but I seem to have been successful in keeping it out of my lungs. Possible schedule at this point is return to work Wednesday, possible light jog Thursday evening at the earliest.

Flu, continued

If you don't care to read about flu symptoms, it might be best to give the ol' blog a miss for a couple of days.

Seem to have made some improvement - body temp seems a bit more stable, heart rate's come down a bit (still high though). Still don't feel like eating, although I've been good and taken my multivitamins, and hydration is an issue - I really feel that I'm forcing water down. Feeling fairly dopey with the lack of quality sleep, too. The bug hasn't made big advances into my chest - I've had some material come up (note the tasteful phrasing) periodically, but certainly not regularly or in large amounts. I am taking an expectorant, so we'll see - I think the key to quick recovery is going to be keeping this out of my chest.

I'll take tomorrow off work and see how things pan out from there.

A revolting development

Well, now I know why the heart rate's been up a bit in the last two warm ups.

I had a bit of a scratchy throat, and really battled with the cold all day Friday, and as we got home in the evening it got worse and worse. Then the headache started, then the legs were sore - yup, a dose of the flu. Hit the sack at about 8:15pm, and really got no sleep. Body temperature was all over the shop, and I simply could not get comfortable

Missed the Striders 10k (although I did make good on my offer to give Johnny Dark a lift - heck, I was awake anyway...), where it was 2 degrees at 6am! I didn't get out of the car, opting instead to go home and go back to bed.

So - I've got eight days to shake it. It's a proper virus, so I can't train, lest I really mess myself up. I've dropped an e-mail to SW seeking his advice on what I can do to expedite recovery and what I should training-wise. I realise that with a week to go, the hard work's all done, so the priority is getting rid of the flu.

I think I know where I got it, too - on the bus on Wednesday night, I had a guy directly behind me coughing and spluttering the whole way. I thought about moving seats - well, guess I should have...

Do the early morning shuffle

After last week's comments about the break between the Friday run (done in the evening) and not feeling great for the CR5k challenge the following morning, it was up at 5:30am this morning to get my half hour easy run in. The wind had blown the humidity away over night, so a long sleeve top was in order to combat the fresh, breezy conditions.

Felt very stiff and beaten up initially, and was very slow through the first kilometre. Once I cross the pedestrian bridge over Victoria Road and head down to the ferry stop I usually start rolling along okay, and whilst I continued to feel stiff throughout the run, this morning was no exception. 6.2km in 30:11, ave HR 134 - interesting the heart rate's been up in the last two warm ups. Recommended action - none.

I was also looking for something to compare last night's rep session to - back in April, ran a 3 x 2k (with 2 min recovery) session at the Bay Run with Fats, KT and djl, where the splits were 7:38, 7:37 and 7:30 - so I was 50 seconds quicker across the 3 x 2k last night (admittedly with a longer recovery), and then ran a 3:25km to finish. Seems like progress.

Three by Two, One by One

Must admit I'm feeling it a bit at the moment, and looking forward to next week's easy schedule in the lead up to City 2 Surf. Hit Centennial Park at about 5:45 to a fresh breeze coming out of the south west, making my hated stretch down Ronaldson Road into the wind. Joy.

Session tonight was 3 x 2k (4 min jog recovery), 1k.

Got through a very ordinary warm up of 4.76km in 24:29 (ave HR 134, a bit high), and felt like there was simply no way I was going to rustle up any pace faster than about 5:10 per km. Felt even worse through the drills, although the run throughs seemed to come along okay.

So, down to business. It's a pretty big pack on Thursday night, and it does become a bit of a race, which helps a lot. I just wanted to go through just outside 10k pace for the first 2k, bit quicker for the second, really put in for the third, and then belt the last km. Reps went:
7:24
7:20
7:07 (3:29 for the second km)
3:25 for the 1km. Ave HR through the session, excluding the recoveries, was 156 - 161 over the last two intervals, just north of 175 at the end of both.

Easy Tiger, nursing a strained calf, dragged me through the back half of the second rep and the 1k, giving me a couple of little tips as we went, and helped drag more speed out of me than I would have by myself (field thinned a lot for the last two reps). Dip of the lid for that and the lift to Rozelle. Cheers!

Bit of a rush at the finish (longish session), going through only 1.95k in 9:50 (ave HR 126). Had a stretch on catching up with the Run Club crew at King Georges oval.

Positive session after a horrid warm up, which is always good.

Mid-week tour

Had a pretty ordinary night's sleep, with an odd period of finding it hard to get a complete breath between about 1:45am and 2:00am.

After a bit of a kerfuffle with the alarm, hit the road just after 6:30am to once again tackle the new Wednesday 90 minute run to work route, as per the blog entry from last week.

Didn't feel great when I hit the road, but pushed on as I warmed up, and hit the bottom of Lilyfield Road at about 4:38 per km pace. Condition continued to improve as the run went on, and finished with a strong push through North Sydney and Crows Nest to finish 20.43km in 1:34:05, ave HR of 139. Shifted the Garmin to the right wrist through North Sydney and didn't seem to get the usual plague of "Weak GPS Signals" I usually see through here.

Have had a few hard days in a row now, looking forward to a 36 hour break until Thursday night's session.

Ongoing Additions

With the acquisition of the 301 and use of the photo tool in Blogger, you've no doubt noticed I'm putting more pictures in. I've also discovered how to convert GPS plots into Google Earth, and at this stage have done a few recent runs - a Wednesday long run from last week, the City 2 Surf course from a couple of weeks ago, the Sutherland 2 Surf - but also gone back and done a couple of others, most notably the Woodford to Glenbrook from June, and the plot from the very first full Six Foot Track recon run I did with Spud and Mister G back in October last year. Please go and have a look at them - I reckon they look pretty good, and give a decent idea of the courses. I'll be adding more in the coming weeks.

Tuesday, and it's 6 x 800...

Not my favourite session - not a huge fan of the 800s...

Got to Kensington in reasonable time, got changed and worked through 3.8k worth of warm up in 17:03, ave HR 121.

Wasn't feeling particularly enthusiastic about the reps - worked through a full set of drills, and down to business. 6 x 800, which went down as follows:

2	36
2	37
2	36
2	39
2	40
2	40

Average rep was 2:38, average HR through the session (including recovery jogs) was 158bpm, although as the following chart shows, it was well north of 175 in the last four reps. Bit disappointed to go backwards in the last three, but may have gone a little hard on the first two, and might have been carrying a bit from last night.


Still, completed the session 8 seconds quicker than a fortnight ago, and 34 seconds quicker than a month ago, so there's progress.

Finished with a gentle 2.52k in 13:35 chatting to Rob to finish the session.

The benefits of soft surface long runs...

Following the policy of sleeping in Monday mornings, got out at about 6:10pm on a clear Monday evening. My program called for 14k in 1 hour 10 min, which struck me as a little odd, as it's usually 16k, and 5 min per km is my 'easy' run pace.

Hadn't felt great during the day, so made the call to run according to how I felt rather than to any set pace, and ignore the watch as much as I could.

Ran the usual route of east along Victoria Road to the Bay Run, looping around and back via the Iron Cove and Gladesville Bridges. Once I got going I actually felt pretty good, with none of the usual impact soreness I would get after a STaR of the same length I ran on Sunday, and was soon rolling along, feeling light on my feet and very efficient. Saw 26 miles with the Run Clubbers as I came into King Georges Oval at Rozelle.

Snuck a look at the watch coming on to the Iron Cove and was a little surprised to see the pace at 4:21 per km. Decided to keep the pressure on, and had to build a little loop in to ensure I didn't have to do a heap of loops around home to make up time.

Managed 16.02 km in 1h10m for 4:22 per km pace, average HR 136. It was a little hard through Drummoyne, but I thought I held up pretty well over the long climb to the peak of Gladesville Bridge.

Doubtless I'll hear from SW telling me I should have taken it easy, and I'll probably pay dearly for it tomorrow. Oh well.

Attached is an elevation and heart rate profile.