It's been a busy couple of weeks and I'll start from earlier and work my way forward to today.
Last Sunday I ran an 8km very hilly 'Run for the Hills'. It was a local event, with about 500 runners and nice and close. We only had to drive about 15 minutes to get there, parking was easy and a pretty impressive goodie bag. Now, I'd woken up a couple of days earlier with a bit of a sore throat and continually having to clear my throat with the ahem bug. The Friday beforehand it was a scorching 43 degrees, so I was a bit worried about the heat. It was warm, about 25 degrees at 8am, which felt hotter in the sun.
The run started well, the first 2kms were less than 6 min pace and just over 6 min pace. I knew I couldn't keep it up, but it was fun feeling good and running well. About the 2.5km I caught up to Molly and we pretty much ran/walked the hills. It was nice to run with her, been a while since we've run together. I had run this course a couple of times and knew what was in store, but it was incredibly difficult in the heat and my health not being 100%. Once we got to the crest of the last hill, I knew there was less than a km to go and a small incline to go up. But once over the crest, the finish line was closer than I though - no incline to run up.
It was also lovely to finish together with Molly!!! And I was aiming for less than 1 hour and made it in about 57.51 minutes. Quite enjoying the smaller events, was impressed to have the option of some yummy summer fruit at the end and once we got home recovery was a dip in the pool. Even Jake the dog enjoyed a dip.
Impressed to see for the first time I got some air while running!!!
Fast forward to this week and I was still struggling with this cold and horrible coughing fits. Following on my coach's advice, I didn't run. Don't think I could've run anyway!!! I struggled through the week, but couldn't face Friday, so had a day off, went to the doctors. I didn't want antibiotics, I wanted some answers. My body seems to breaking down every 12 weeks or so and struggling for 7 - 10 days with a cold that knocks me about. I gave her lots of my background information, exercise etc and she took some blood for tests.
I was to run the Central Coast 10km today, but decided not to compete. Would've loved for a pb, as it's a nice flat course and small field. But that was not to be.
I still went and became the support person for some lovely girls from Run Club and Kelly (12wbt amazing girl) who were running the half and my hubby who was running the 10km.
Once the runners were off, it was coffee time and I found a nice sunny/shady spot about 300m from the finish line where I could see the runners coming towards the finish line. It didn't take long for the elite athletes came through and wow, they're impressive!!!
I had a light bulb moment today while watching the runners coming through. As you'd know from previous posts, I'm quite tough on myself and beat myself up about being slow. But today I watched ladies and men, all ages, all sizes, finish the 10km and the half marathon. I was particularly interested in the group around my finishing times and do you know what - they were all enjoying themselves and they all looked fit and there were lots of people coming in after them.
It made me realise that I'm doing ok!!!!
Looking good Kelly!!!
Great run Michelle!!!
Well done Molly, how many half marathons is that this year?? You champion!!!
All this good headspace stuff is going make my 2015 amazing.
Starting to get itchy feet over running two half marathons in 2015!!! Think I might need to register for Canberra and the Sun Run :)
Winding up what has been a great year for you Sue!! If you sat down and wrote a list of all your events you would be blown away to see them all in a row. Hard to imagine how you could improve your amazingly consistent approach to your training, but I'll take your word for it.
ReplyDeleteWell done Sue.