a little off-track

I’ve fallen a little off-track so-to-speak.

It had been a full week of “exposure” (although intermittent) to my ill friend. I had not fallen sick so I felt pretty confident that I had immunity to the bug he was toting around. In essence, my body was successfully fighting off illness — until Wednesday.

On Wednesday evening, I decided it was the perfect time to put some speed back into my running. Why it couldn’t wait any longer, I don’t know. Already, I was at the track for YaYa’s football conditioning.

So why not?

I’ll tell you why not

After a bit of contemplation, I opted for 400s. Of course I set the bar at the level Coach given me – when I was actually running regularly. After the handing off of YaYa, I toed the line, clicked Lil Miss’ START button and began a 1 mile warm up. My lungs felt tight but, after a couple of laps, my breathing eased. Then came the 1st repeat.

Huffing and puffing, I ran my hardest around the track one time. Just ONE lap, I told myself. Over shooting my goal by 9 seconds, I finished the 400 in 1:36 and began a much needed 200m recovery walk. The following two repeats were on par with my target (1:46 and 1:47), but the final was 9 seconds slow and I felt like crapola. I cooled down for a mile and plopped myself on the astroturf to chit-chat with BoBo and another football mom.

All seemed well – until morning. That was when I knew that I’d successfully pushed my body over the edge. Now, I am sick too. *cough*

I know my body was enjoying the easier paced running but this is no good. I have a race coming up in a few weeks which I’d like to use as a baseline and launch for marathon training. Speedwork WILL resume. But 1st, I must rest up and get well.