Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Trail Race #1 Looms...


Training for my first trail race has not gone as I had expected. I was significantly derailed two weeks ago when I woke up with a sore throat and an ear ache. Maybe this was just allergies, right?

Except, all week long, when I was awake, I was exhausted, and only the fear of missing flights and early morning meetings got me out of bed earlier than 8am.

I managed to wheeze my way up Mt. Kearsarge in New Hampshire after hopping off one of those flights. Other than that, all physical workouts were nil for a week, until I made an appearance at Fuse Pilates for a Tower class last Thursday. That class kicked my booty.

Since then, I've run four times. Each run was less than 5 miles and of varying quality. Or, consistently lacking quality. In fact, the only good run was a three-miler last Friday during lunch. For everything else, my inflamed bronchi protested and my legs felt sluggish.

In short, I have no idea whether I can even run six miles in this new-found DC heat and humidity.

This is somewhat stressful. I needed to make it less so.

With my original training plan now down the toilet, I figured I'd ignore anything resembling a taper and count Sunday's trail run as just another run in the woods. I have to not care if half the world passes me on Sunday. This week, I'd run, do Pilates and practice yoga when I felt like it. That is, to the extent that I could actually get into my Pilates class of choice.
I started out as 18th on the wait list last night. This morning, I was 17th.
As of 11:30am, I'm 14th . Come on, slackers, cancel!
To my surprise this morning, I woke up, and I didn't sound like I was drowning in bronchitis crud! Woohoo! My run still sucked (tight, heavy legs in particular), but I'm optimistic that it was due to my lack of acclimation to 77% humidity and the loss of fitness, rather than ailing lungs.

My fingers remain crossed that I'll be able to toe the line on Sunday being able to breathe like myself, and run 10K in a respectable time. Or, you know, just finish it without collapsing into a heap.