Everyone is stupid once in a while

So, I like to think of myself as fairly sensible when it comes to training.  Always erring on the side of caution if I fear illness or injury.  But, this cough that came in a few days when I'm so close to my 1000 miles in 2013 goal is just plain inconvenient.  Plus, surely my flu vaccination would see it off before it interfered with my training.

On the day I started to feel a bit sick, I decided that an easy 3 miles wouldn't hurt.  And they didn't I did them and all was fine.  The next day, I went to the gym and did a couple of miles on the treadmill before  resistance training - this illness wasn't going to take hold!  The next day I felt like staying in bed all day, and pretty much did that, although with a blanket in front of the tv.  I missed choir practise for the concert the next day in hope that it would save my voice, but I felt pretty bad on Saturday too, and singing in the concert meant a very very sore throat.  On Sunday, I'd had enough.  any hint of fever had gone, so I got on my trainers and went for a run, an easy 6 miles.  I told myself that the fact I had to stop every 1.5 miles to walk to catch my breath wasn't a problem, and it was just because  it had been so long (2 days) since I last run!  I got through the 6 miles, in reasonable time, then got home and shut down for a bit... due to not feeling well I hadn't eaten all that much in the last few days, so cue a bout of RUNger.

Now, a sensible person would have written off the 8 mile run for maybe an easy 3 or 4, to give myself some extra time to recover.  But I really wanted to fit this session in called the magic mile.  It's from Jeff Galloway's book Boston Marathon: How to Qualify! , and involves running a mile as fast as you can after a warm up.  This should serve to predict the best marathon pace you can hope for.  I had a quick re-read of the instructions before I set off and noted the part where he says the magic mile should not be run with an injury, well it didn't say not to run it if you have had a cough for days and have asthma... I set off on my merry way.. The plan was a 2 mile warm up, do the magic mile, then make up the other 5 miles.  I should have modified this plan when I had to stop to walk through the warm up.  But then I often need to modify pace during the warm up as my body gets used to running instead of sitting around.  I did a large part of this warm up walking, stopping to do dynamic stretches from time to time (didn't want to risk injury after all).

Since I'm aiming for an 8:30 marathon pace, my magic mile pace should be around 6:32.  I set off as fast as I could, just going for it and not looking at the garmin.  by the time I was really tired, I looked down... I'd only done 0.22 of the mile and I was going at 6:48 pace... That was a bit demoralising.  I dug deep and told myself my body was just getting used to the faster pace, and would adjust soon.  I pushed harder, and the next time I looked at the watch I was at 6:38 and then 6:32 pace, but I was utterly exhausted. and could barely breath.  My lungs were BURNING!!!  AT 0.6 of a mile I stopped the garmin, and stopped running.  There was no way I was in shape to finish of the 8 miles, and I certainly should not have done this session.  Afterall, its a session to test where you are, not speedwork.  There is not really a relevant training benefit from running 1 mile at a fast pace.

I really should have known better.

So, that was me being stupid.  I completed a 4.38 mile run, and now I'm looking forward to repeating the session successfully when I don't still have a cold!!!