Monday 16 November 2015

Under the weather this week ..... both physically and metaphorically!

In bed on Sunday night the OB and I had the following conversation .....

The OB 'Are you training tomorrow?'

Me 'Yes'

The OB 'Have you had your training email yet?'

Me ' No, but I reckon there'll be a seven miler on it so I'll do seven miles tomorrow. Probably Petrockstowe to Meeth, which must be about seven miles'

How romantic is that ....... We have such exciting pillow talk?!

Now bearing in mind that the wet and windy weather was with us
 ....... storm Abigail and hurricane Kate, both of which have been with us all week meant that running could prove to be dodgy!

I also need to add that I woke up with a bit of a sore throat but as I don't suffer from colds just put it down to sleeping with the window shut due to the wind! (Outside I hasten to add)

Sooooooooo .........  after doing all my day job prep for the afternoon we (the woofers who make out they haven't been for a run in months) and the OB and I went to Petrockstowe .......

We went in opposite directions ....... Jess doesn't like my chosen route ..... and  is quite diva ish so I do wonder by her reaction what danger I'm running into!

Almost at mile one,  I jumped out of my skin as a cyclist behind me dinged his bell ....... I was so far in La La land and with the wind hadn't heard him approach so leapt in the air and shrieked, making him assure me it was ok ......... think he was more scared than me!!

Into mile two and my chest started to feel really tight, and my nose started to run .......
.......... no tissue and no sleeves either!!!
Then my legs felt like lead and I just got slower and slower ......

I ran 5.87 miles ...... thank goodness it wasn't 7 miles because it was an awful time ....
The OB and doggens came to meet me as I  struggled  back  ....... unheard off as I'm as always back before them.

On the way home I felt really ill, although didn't let on to the OB because I'd never felt like this before and didn't want to frighten him but bloody hell, I thought I might be on my third wake up call ( you know the 'your time is up one'!!)

Once home I was so cold but the water wasn't hot enough for me to have a bath so I had to sit in my puffa jacket to try to get warm whilst we ate scrambled egg ...........

I had a bath and  went to work ....... where my legs ached, ill ache,  not exercise ache for the next four hours. 

Whilst I was at work the training email arrived ........ and yay ........ There was a seven mile run,,, plus a 30 minute enjoy yourself job plus 45 minutes of strides and running to oblivion run .....
.........well to be fair, 10 mins warm up ... the usual 5 mins strides including recovery and then five minutes of easy, medium, hard and very hard and 10 mins warm down!

And still my legs ached .......  all night and again in the morning during my four hour milk recording stint.

I decided to join the cycling group and we cycled 23 miles and I felt absolutely fine, so it must have been a blip then?


On Wednesday I felt absolutely awful and training went on hold ..........
Obviously not a blip then!

Now I'm sure you're thinking by now that I should just put training on the back burner  ...............

Of course I should, however on Thursday I felt fine and so we went to Puffing Billy as the doggens needed their run and so did I .........  

......... the agreement was (with no one in particular) that if I felt fine at mile two I'd carry on and do seven miles and if not I'd do the thirty minute run or definitely stop if I felt ill. Yes honestly, no messing. 

I was also hoping to get a photo of the landslip which had occurred overnight on the A386 which runs along side the TT.

The bad news is that the landslip was on the bit of Road that doesn't run alongside the TT, however the good news is ............ I ran seven miles ....... 

I've never run seven miles before .........


......and  I was amazed to see that I'd done it at race pace, although that wasn't in the training plan, but I'm now going to blow my own trumpet and announce how chuffed I am at running this pace and time .......

Of course I was due a fall ......

My plan for the 30 minute run was do it at Parkrun and then do the stride/hard run one on Sunday as I was away teaching on Monday so would have the day off.

Best laid plans and all that ......

On Saturday morning I woke up to the back door trots .... 
Not a good idea to go to Parkrun then! The OB was time keeper so had to go but my frequent trots to the loo meant I had to stay behind. ( No! no idea what caused it)

Yesterday morning the OB and I had the following conversation in bed ...... bearing in mind the wet and blustery weather ...

The OB ' Are you running today, it doesn't sound very good out there'

Me 'I'll see what it's like later, but I'm hoping to. I don't know which one I'll do though, depends how I feel and where we go'

That was the dilemma ...... which part of the TT was least likely to chuck bits of tree at me?

Off to Watersmeet then!

Oh dear God ..... why the road closures? After driving half way round the county and introducing the OB to a new road we arrived......

The warm up was fine, the TT at this point is down in the valley and so very sheltered The first four strides/recovery were text book but then into my fifth stride I had to plough through a load of shit/piss/mud where the cows cross  the TT. Well actually I pussy footed through it.......

Oh come on I've managed to keep my lovely running shoes clean for the last eleven months, why would I want them covered in shit now?
So after prancing through this quagmire and feeling the shit seeping into my socks I redid the fifth stride/recovery. This took me to the Puffing Billy where I started the five minute bits and the gusty wind came for me, I turned back half way through the medium five minutes and found it hard battling the wind. I kept at it but doubting that I was really doing it properly. So into the 'very hard' five minutes where we needed to 'dig in' and would you believe I managed to swallow a fly which made me cough, retch, spit and swear ...... but not necessarily in that order, and then I had to negotiate the shit pit again..........  Miss Pussyfoot did her stuff and then ran very slowly for the ten minute warm down wondering how Thursday's run had been so brilliant!


*OB - Old bloke
*TT - Tarka Trail










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