Whole week 10 started out strong, it turned into a wash when a cold derailed my training at the end of the week.
On Monday I took a total rest day, feeling wiped out after Sunday’s long run. But come Tuesday, I was ready to get moving and started my day with a zwift session. I’m working my way through the “zwift 101” training courses, so I did the 30 minute “interval” trainer, and biked about 7 miles. I even managed to squeeze in a quick bike training club core session before work.
After work I met up with Kasey and Sophie, and we ran outside near my parents house. I don’t often run at night outside, but I really enjoyed seeing all of the houses that were lit up for the holidays. It was a little bit windy, but we got through the miles nonetheless.
I managed to make it to yoga with Emily on Wednesday, doing a yin class together. Then I met up with Allison to swim, this time making it to 800 yds before calling it quits, largely because I was so hungry, and my body was calling for dinner!
I repeated my Tuesday schedule on Thursday, biking on the trainer in the morning and then running in the evening. The zwift session was called “into the red” this time, and pushed me to harder paces than the previous sessions had.
In the evening, the whole squad headed to the gym together, since sometimes it truly does take a village - Kasey, Emily, Sophie and I all clambered onto treadmills, and got going. My plan was to do a interval workout, that would total about 8 miles. I did a two mile warmup, then upped the pace to 8:06, where I would stay for two miles. It was not the kind of day where the pace came easily, and it was a mental and physical struggle to keep myself moving that fast. When I got through the first set, I seriously considered just keeping an easy pace for the rest of the run, and saying to hell with it for the second set. But after a few minutes of recovery, I had talked myself into at least trying to do the interval a second time- breaking it up into smaller blocks. I could surely make it one mile at the pace, right? So after a half mile of recovery I cranked the treadmill up again, and pushed for that 8:06 pace.
As I struggled through my paces, the guy on the treadmill next to me ran his run, coughing on me sporadically as he went. I was a bit annoyed with this, and thought to myself “why do I feel like I’m going to wind up with a cold now!?”
Welp. Spoiler alert. Totally wound up with a cold.
But- Thursday nights run went perfectly to plan. I talked myself through the second set, and got in my cooldown, running a total of 8 miles that night.
The week came to a close, and Emily and I once again headed to the gym for some more treadmill time on Friday night. I felt fatigued and a little short of breath as we went, and I had to fight for each of the five miles that I ran through. I tried to shake the feeling, but it wasn’t turning out to be a good run. I headed to dinner with Emily and Jennie after, and my throat felt more and more sore as we ate our meal. I was supposed to meet up with Tara the next morning for a long run, so I headed to bed as soon as I got home in hopes of sleeping it off.
Alas, it was not meant to be, and I did not sleep it off as I hoped to. I woke up Saturday morning feeling dehydrated, my throat so sore that it felt swollen, and congestion pounding in my head. I had to bail on the long run, and just kept sleeping- for a total of 13 hours. Which was MUCH longer than I am usually capable of sleeping on my own.
I hoped that some cold medicine would put things in check, and maybe I would be able to get some miles in later in the day or on Sunday. But it was just not in the cards for me, so I focused on trying to stay hydrated and resting, checking in with my asthma meds.
Sadly, the cold was destined to get worse before it got better, which left me with a very low mileage week. I tried not to beat myself up too much about it, hoping the the cold would at least clear up in a timely manner.