Hack, Cough, Acchoooo

No, I don't have a cold, but my body has once again decided to initiate an immune defense following a 2.4km time trial tonight. I wasn't psyched for it, I wasn't warmed up enough, and I wasn't expecting a good time.

I set out quite fast, and although my first split was slower than when I ran my personal best my pace throughout was more consistent. Of course I hated every second of it, but I felt reasonably strong the whole way. Let's ignore the fact that I considered stopping when I recorded a slower first split and realised I wasn't going to be personal besting. However I decided to at least aim for under 11 minutes and kept going. I probably lost a few seconds in the slow-down of indecision though.

It was a nice if cold night, and I was ripping off my wind parker by half way. It was so calm that it seemed a shame not to be taking a longer run around the Bays. I think I picked up the pace again in the last quarter, and certainly I was dogged enough not to let myself peter out. So how did I do? 10.45 compared to a personal best of 10.36 earlier this year. I was annoyed until I worked out that was a difference of only slightly more than two seconds on each quarter. That's nothing! I know I wasn't pushing myself as hard as I was to get 10.36, and I certainly didn't feel as destroyed afterwards, although my chest was still hurting and I've emptied my lungs of any residual phlegm that might have been lurking there. Given how badly things have been going lately, I'll take it.

I'm still not sure whether I was right to take yesterday as a complete rest day. I want to do at least half an hour, preferably 40, which seems to be the time at which I usually start to really settle into a run. We're running 100 minutes this weekend and I'm in no way sure of how I'm going to do. At least my legs won't be as slammed! I think tomorrow's run will be a good indicator of where I'm really at.

BTW: tonight's star was a newbie who managed to knock a whopping three whole minutes off her time. It's amazing how sticking to a training programme can help even someone who's starting completely from scratch.