I've been quite happy with the way I've been running lately. I've been doing a bit more faster stuff. Pushing myself into that hurt zone on shorter runs and finishing my longer runs with a few fast kilometres. It's been confidence-building that there's a little bit of speed left in the old girl, Certainly not the speed I had five years ago but I'm happy with it.
My goal is simple. To run under 50 minutes. Because that's the group that I've seeded myself in and I don't want to make myself a liar. (Not that anyone will care apart from myself.) And after my latest runs I was pretty sure that I could. My 16k run ten days ago - ran the last 8k at sub-5k pace. My 19k run on Saturday - the last 6k were sub-5.
Notice the word WAS in that last paragraph? It should have been an AM. And it would have been an am if I hadn't noticed a tickle in my throat last night. I just thought it was a bit of phlegm that needed clearing. But it needed clearing again and again and again. I dosed myself with zinc and vitamin c and told myself to ignore it. Then woke up coughing in the middle of the night - yep, it's dry and sore.
I skipped this morning's run. I decided the last thing that my throat needed was to be exposed to 5 degree cold, dry air. I may do that run tomorrow morning but will make the call on that closer to the time. If I miss it it's not going to really matter.
My plan is to stay warm, drink lots of hot tea and keep up the zinc and vitamin c if only for their placebo effects. And to keep my fingers crossed. I'm not actually feeling ill so that's a plus.
All those good training runs. All those early mornings. All those high hopes derailed (hopefully temporarily) by breathing in germ-filled air.
If it sounds like I'm disappointed - well, I'm really not. I've been running long enough to know that anything can happen on the day and there will always be other events if this one doesn't go the way I want. But I will be disappointed if the sore throat gets in the way of a fun weekend. Running's only part of the reason that I run.
