Training, Interrupted

I had a challenging week of training last week. After running three out of the last four days the previous week, Monday was a planned rest day. While I was at work on Monday, my nose starting running, my throat was sore, and I began coughing. This oncoming illness probably began the day before, as my throat felt dry and raw when I woke up on Sunday morning. Well, throughout the day on Monday, my condition worsened. I went home and fell asleep at 8:00pm. When the alarm sounded on Tuesday morning, I felt like a truck had slammed into me; and I'm talking about a tractor-trailer, not just an ordinary old pickup truck.

I stayed home from work on Tuesday, slept until noon, and then spent the rest of the day just lounging around the house. I felt slightly better on Wednesday morning and went to work. Even though my chest was still very congested and I was coughing vigorously, I probably would have attempted a run on Wednesday night if it hadn't been 98 degrees outside with a heat index close to 110 degrees. I just didn't think that it was wise to run given the combination of circumstances. I went down to the river to play volleyball on Thursday evening, but it was pouring down rain and we didn't play. Again, I could have gone home to run, but didn't know if it was a good idea to run through a deluge while still dealing with a chest cold.

Suddenly it was Friday, and I still had all three of my runs to do for the week. I did my speed work at the track on Friday evening, blasted through my tempo run on Saturday evening, and left the 14-mile long run for Sunday.

It was close to 90 degrees again on Sunday, so I waited until 6:00pm to leave for my run. For the 14 miles, I planned to run a six-mile loop, a five-mile loop, and then finish up with a three-mile loop. I felt really good during the first six miles, came home, changed out my Fuel Belt bottles, and headed back out for the next loop. I still felt really good for the next four miles. During the last mile of the five-mile loop, I noticed that I was starting to tire noticeably. I returned home, used the bathroom quickly, dropped off some unnecessary items, and left to finish up my run. By that time, I had run about 11.2 miles, so I only had 2.8 to go. Let me tell you, I think that was the longest 2.8 miles of my entire life! I felt absolutely horrible. I don't know if it was running three days in a row, my lingering chest cold, the heat, dehydration, or the more likely combination of all those factors, but I struggled mightily to finish. I did make it through the run - barely, as I began cramping just as I was crossing over the 14-mile threshold. It took me a full hour and a half to realize any recovery whatsoever after the run ended. I was so tired that my jaws were too tired to eat until a few hours later. I don't ever remember feeling that badly after a run; not even after marathons that haven't gone well.

I learned an important lesson from last week's training. I will not be running three days in a row again; it just takes too much of a toll on my body. Sometimes my schedule necessitates running two days in a row, but I will try to ensure that one of those two runs is not my long run for the week. At this point, I'm just glad that I was able to complete all of my training runs for last week without hurting myself.