Indirect Proportion

Week 3 of training for the Chester Marathon.

The quality of my running this week has been in indirect proportion to the number on the thermometer (at least, if I'm remembering my maths/science terms correctly it was!). On Monday I was so tired I couldn't get out of bed for my morning run. Not a great start! The evening run and Body Pump were fine though.

The mercury started to rise on Tuesday and my form started to fall. I had to drop out of the track session after three 1k reps at a pace slower than my 3k race pace. I got halfway through the first 600m rep that followed and threw in the towel. I jogged that one out then skipped the next one. My club mate carried on but the heat took its toll on her and she passed out cold after the last rep, which was a little frightening to be honest. Luckily we had a medic on hand. A midwife, so it made a bit of a change for her! The other medic on the scene was the girl out cold on the floor!

Wednesday was ridiculous. It was still over 30 degrees in the evening when I set off for my 12 miler. I had a litre and a half of water with me, but it just wasn't enough. Also my stupid Garmin died on me. I had to walk a little up some of the hills. Finally got home and logged the bit my Garmin missed and realised I was still a mile and a half short, so I finished up on the treadmill.

On Thursday I got home to find my hallway full, and I do mean FULL of flying ants. Aaaargh. I swatted at them with a rolled up magazine and sprayed them all with deodorant, air freshener and hair spray. Then I went upstairs and there were more in the bathroom (got them with Cif bathroom spray). Grabbed my bag to go to B&Q and spotted a load more in the living room and kitchen. Ugh, I feel itchy just thinking about it. I bought some flying insect killer spray, drove home and set about mass insecticide. Finally at about 8pm I got out for a run. I was so stressed out that I just had no energy left. I had to walk the entire length of a mile long hill and cut the run short.

Friday - still killing bugs and also a little distracted by the Williams v Watson match. I ended up going to Argos to buy a dustbuster handheld vacuum thing to get the dead bugs out of crevices that the hoover won't fit in to, and then to the gym. 5 miles plodded out.

We had massive thunder storms during the night, so it was off very little sleep that I got out of bed at stupid o'clock for the long journey down to Bristol for the Midlands league. After such a rubbish week I wasn't expecting much from my 3000m race. It was warm and really quite windy, although not as bad as at the last Mids league fixture. Just before the race I started to get stomach cramps and abdominal distention. I mean, really? Right now? There was some, erm, wind assistance, during my strides and I had to run off for a last minute visit. There was no action though. I really feared a mid race accident.

We started too quickly for my liking and the first 400 went by in 83 seconds. I was with a group that soon spread out into single file. I tucked in behind a girl from Bristol for a lap or two but I was getting ridiculously annoyed by her constantly running inside the inside line, ie cutting the distance. I don't know why it bothered me so much, but it did. I moved past her and tucked in behind a Gloucester girl, but she must have been slowing and pretty soon I had to go past her too. This put me behind my club's other runner. I could hear from her breathing that she was struggling so I pulled past, willing her to come with me. I was now behind a girl from BRAT and she too was running inside the inside line. Aaarrgh. Passed her too and ended up 4th in a season's best of 10.52.1. My stomach never bothered me again for the rest of the day.

All the travelling made for a very long day so I was late starting my long run this morning. I must learn to drag myself out of bed earlier for these. By the time I got to 13 miles I was nearly out of water so I had to slightly extend my run to go to a shop to buy more. 21.5 miles brought up 70.5 for the week.

Next week is a cutback. I don't really feel like I need one yet, but at least I might get to see some tennis!