Beat Lightly

Many people I come in contact with have been battling a cold this year. Since I started running and gotten healthier, I'v successfully battled against most colds and won. This particular is a worthy opponent. While I'm not flat out sick, I am nowhere near 100%. My legs have been sore most of the week. The first couple of days could be attributed to the leg workout on Sunday, but by Thursday it had to be something else. My energy level is down while the times on my running routes are up.

Tuesday's Easy 6 were done at 9:30 pace. I'm usually 30 to 60 seconds faster than that on the same route. At this point I didn't give it much thought, it was supposed to be an easy run after all.

The 7 miler on Wednesday was split into two sections. I ran to the gym, worked out chest/bi/shoulders and ran back home. The pace on the way was 9:16. After the workout, the first half mile towards home, I began wondering if I'd even make it. I had no choice. I hadn't brought my cell phone and neither my son or wife were home anyway.

Thursday's Half Marathon Pace workout confirmed that I just wasn't myself. Due to a planned work trip to PHX leaving around 6:00 p.m., I left work early for my workout. I headed over to the bike path near work. The workout called for 9 miles - 1 mile warm up, 7 miles HMPace, 1 mile cool down. My goal HM pace is about 8:00.

My warm up mile was 9:31, right where I'd been all week. I took off at the mile marker and my legs were heavy. I made the first mile in 8:05, not too bad and I kept going. On the second mile my legs didn't get any lighter. I pulled mile 2 off in 7:53, but I was already spent. I took a 30 second walk break and headed into mile 3 - 8:25. I basically just gave up at that point there was no way that I was going to get 4 more miles at 8:00 pace. I was determined to complete the entire 9 miles, at this point I had to go back the 4 miles to the start, so I might as well gut out the next half mile before turning around. A couple of minutes into that and I changed my mind. I was back to the mile marker in 3:46. The four miles back came in at 9:28, 9:38, 10:08 and 9:41 with ample walk breaks. One redeemer factor about the run was that it was 2:00 in the afternoon and sunny, so at least my suntan got a workout.

I had contemplated a trial half marathon on Saturday, but in my beaten down state, I opted for an easy LSD 10 miler with the Cruisers on the river trail in Yorba Linda. 10:00 was my nice and easy pace.

I could tell that the cold still had some grip on me this morning at the workout with my trainer. After that I ran the Bonelli Sunday Loop, again really slowly. I just don't have any pep in my legs and I can't seem to breath deep enough to pull off a decent pace.

It (the cold) hasn't gotten me completely, but it has definitely made its presence known. My wife unfortunately has been down for the count since Friday and it looks as though she may still be in bed tomorrow.

I've got four weeks until the Surf City Half. I'm not sure what effect this little setback in the training will mean to my PR attempt.

Stay healthy everyone. This year's cold seems to be a tenacious little bugger.