It seems like when you think you have things figured out something throws you off and you have to accept and learn from it to move forward. I was recently taught this lesson again.
After running the London Marathon at the end of April with a really good time I got back home with a cold I caught while traveling. I thought I recovered and started preparing for the two 10k races I do in May: the Airlife Run and the Bolder Boulder. To get ready for these I typically go for shorter, faster runs rather than the typical long marathon paced runs. My goal for these races is to run them faster than I did the year before and I thought I was ready for them.
We had a relatively cold and rainy May and the day of the Airlife run rain was predicted. I wore rain gear and was glad I did because it started raining right before the race and continued the entire race (it was even raining hard at times). By the time I finished I was soaked, my time was slightly slower than the year before but I thought it was due to the rain and the fact that part of this race is on a muddy, hilly trail (you even start on the grass on the side of a hill).
The Bolder Boulder takes place on Memorial Day and the week leading up to it I was not running well. When I was running it seemed like I couldn't catch my breath and I had a nagging cough that would not go away. The day of the race I had no expectations on how I would do and ran that way. In short I felt slow and was having issues catching my breath along with a tightness in my chest during the race. I didn't look at my watch until I was done and was glad I didn't because I was over 3 minutes slower than the year before. I spent the rest of the day coughing so I figured it was time to go to a doctor.
The next day I went to the outpatient clinic and found out I had a mild case of bronchitis, they gave me a prescription for a couple days (a steroid so I might fail drug tests now!) along with an inhaler. As soon as I started taking them I felt better. I ran very short, easy paced runs during this time and never got out of breath.
I thought I was done with everything and recovered so yesterday morning I figured I would go out for at least a 10 mile run. I started out as soon as the sun came up with a water bottle in my hand that I would fill up along the way. Unfortunately yesterday turned out to be the warmest day in May and it got hot very quickly. I kept filling my water bottle whenever I could but I don't think I drank enough. I ended up running 11.6 miles and I felt off the rest of the day no matter how much water, electrolytes or anything else I drank. In hindsight I had some heat related issues because I pushed myself too hard on a day when I should not have. In addition the previous day I was doing yard work in the sun and I probably didn't drink enough fluids so that contributed to how I felt.
We are finally going to have some days in the 80's this week so I can get used to warmer weather running but I am not going to run really hard this week. I feel better today and got a 3 mile run in along with some lifting this morning.
In a couple weeks I am supposed to run the Mount Evans Ascent which is a 14.5 mile run (from 9,000 feet elevation to over 14,000 feet) to the top of Mount Evans. It has been difficult to train for this race due to the health issues I had but also because the road we run on still has snow on it! Due to how cold and wet May has been they have not plowed the road yet even though it usually opens on Memorial Day. We have been told the race is still supposed to happen but at this point I am not real optimistic it will.
Now that I look back on the past several weeks I should have gone to the doctor earlier but that is the benefit of hindsight. In addition I am going to have to take some time to get used to the summer heat because we haven't had the slow build up to it like we usually have every spring.
No comments:
Post a Comment