Saturday, September 29, 2012

Week 11, Days 3 & 4

Been busy so skipped posting the last few days. So this is for the runs I did on Wednesday and Thursday. After the Yassos on Monday, I did not feel bad about taking Tuesday off.

Wednesday I just did an easy three around the park. Time was 33:38 or 11:08 pace, once again a pretty good pace for that difficult route. Can't remember now what time of day I did this. Oh, that's right. It was in mid-morning after walking the dogs and before I went out to get my hair and nails done.

Thursday I did an easy five miler on my "Madison" route. This one was in the early evening, after 5 pm, after I got back from setting my crates up for the agility trial on Friday. The roads felt kind of slippery after the rain. My knee didn't feel great, and I don't know if that was because of the rain/humidity, or because I had run the dogs in agility class in the middle of the day (and maybe the knee brace I wear for agility was bothering me?), or because I had been schlepping the wire crates around and setting them up. And of course, I think I probably alter my stride when I am worried about slipping.

Come to think of it, the left foot is feeling a little weird also. That might be because now that it is fall, I've been changing my regular dog-walking shoes. Had been walking in the Keens all summer with no problem, but the last few days I've worn my old Merrills a bunch and maybe they are causing a problem. Note to self, get some Keens for the fall/winter.

Anyway, felt a little knee twinge early in the second mile, and maybe I should have cut the run short. But I kept going. the knee became bothersome again near the end of the run, when I had just about a half-mile to go. I even stopped and walked a little bit at that point, then jogged slowly the rest of the way. Time was 54:07 for 4.9 miles or 11:02 pace, which is not bad considering the walking.

Anyway, I took yesterday off because of the agility trial, and then I'm also taking today off because of the race tomorrow, and also because, damn it, I feel like I am getting a cold. Just in time for State-to-State tomorrow morning.

Now the dilemma. Do I skip the race and then it turns out it's not really a cold anyway? And then I have broken my streak of doing this race every time since the first year. Or do I run anyway, and turn the cold into pneumonia/bronchitis, just in time for the wedding next weekend and when I am really not going to have time to get to the doctor this week and have a gazillion things to do?

In the meantime, I am sucking down the vitamin C. I really have to get back on the vitamin kick. I actually did take them this morning before I went off to stand around in the cold outside at the agility trial. Was colder than I expected when I got there and I was wearing shorts. Stupid.

It looks like it is going to be in the upper 40s in Oxford tomorrow morning for the start of the race, and only climb to about 55 degrees by the time I finish. Gonna be one of those years where I have to layer and debate ditching my old garments, I guess.

Last year the weather was pretty perfect, and I made my goal of breaking 2:00 and even placed second in the age group. This year I wanted to go even a little faster, and the workouts of the last few weeks were telling me that I was in shape to do that, but now I don't know. If I really feel sick even taking it easy is going to be stupid. Well, at least it won't be raining tomorrow. Last year I think I also felt like I was getting a cold before the race but it was a false alarm. I was a little thinner this time last year. Let's not dwell on that.

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Reflections of a slow, fat marathoner