The nausea of the 30k training run last week left me weak and despondent. Monday night’s circuits class lifted me a bit but I had stiff and sore muscles and I still felt under par.
Tuesday I went for a massage with Fiona Campbell and let myself have a day of rest. My head was sore and I felt tired and out of sorts. I blamed my hormones. I am not sure the HRT is doing what it did a year ago.
I continued to feel tired on Wednesday, too. My brain was also foggy and work had not gone well. I was feeling generally down and I looked at the training schedule and thought: “No way.”
Get out and run with other people.
Trying to refind my training mojo
Then I decided I needed to get myself back on track. I would find a group to run with. I would do something different.
I had long wanted to join a local hill running club, the Westies, for a training run. On a wet Wednesday they were planning a run of The Cobbler, a fantastic mountain in he Arrochar Alps. It was almost an hour’s drive each way for a 2.5 hour run but it was very much worth it.
I counted this mountain run as my week’s hill running session. Annoyingly, I forgot to start my watch to record the run but it was around eight miles and almost 950m of total ascent. See My first run with the Westies.
I rested on Thursday.
I still had a reps session to do
I knew I still had a speed reps session to do this week but I pushed it to the back of my mind. I’d agreed to take part in a half marathon run as part of a relay team for the Aberfeldy Middle Distance Triathlon on Sunday and I wondered if I could excuse myself from the speed reps.
But no! I hate to let myself down and I didn’t want JHC thinking I was missing session in just week 2 of the training.
At 7pm on Friday I still had not set out for the session. Then G called me to say he would be home by 8pm and we should go to the pub. I said I was still thinking, only thinking, about doing a speed session. I was whimpering about it. He told me to get the feck out the door and get on with it. That gave me the push I needed.
Although the reps session was still tough – it was the same reps as the week before – it felt a little easier. Maybe I ran a bit slower (I think I did!) but I paced it better and somehow it felt mentally more manageable.
But four min reps still go on for a very long time when you are working hard!
I completed them. Gave myself a pat on the back and returned home smiling.
Saturday was spent on house chores and travelling to Kenmore, near Aberfeldy, for a vannie overnight prior to the relay race.
Running 21km as part of a triathlon relay
You can find out how the race went. Briefly, I had a terrible night’s sleep due to menopausal hot sweats, restless legs and the constant feeling of needing to pee. I woke up feeling frustrated and exhausted.
I perked myself up with a gallon of coffee, ate a light breakfast of cornflakes, granola and banana and told myself to “woman up”. I was needed for the relay team and so I should do the best I could.
Instead of the programmed longer run, this half-marathon race was to be the weekend run and I could simply run in my comfort zone if I wanted.
Of course, I didn’t. I ran fairly hard and in the end I felt great (after the finish line!). I am suffering with tight calves just now and the mostly tarmac course didn’t help but I felt that 21kms was perfectly possible and I enjoyed being cheered on by the spectators.
I also liked being part of a team.
You can find out how I get on with week three of training for a 50k ultra next.