Frustration

Overall it was great weekend - trip to Chilliwack to visit the parents, X-country skiing in Manning Park, Gisels' house party, watching a classic movie from the '90's, hanging out with a good friend, sleeping in ... Pretty good by most standards, so I really shouldn't let 50 minutes get me down.

I decided to go for a run on Sunday, it was raining and windy and cold but I needed to get out of the house so I bundled up, got some good tunes lined up on the iPod and headed outside for an hour run. After about 20 minutes I wasn't feeling so hot so I downgraded from aiming for an hour to 55 minutes (woohoo, a whole five minutes off!). After 30 minutes things weren't getting any better, despite my attempts to go at a slow easy pace my heart rate was over 180. This is the point where an intelligent athlete would realize today was not the day for them to run and go home. I have never claimed to be intelligent nor am I comfortable calling myself an athlete so this was not an issue.

It is incredibly frustrating to know that a few months ago I could run for several hours but now I'm struggling to get close to an hour. Yes, I know that I'm still fighting the after-effects of the flu and I've been away from running regularly for a while and I should be running within my current abilities, not where I think I should be but, but, but ... I can't even run for an hour! I should be able to do an hour easily darn it! In fact, I'm signed up for the First Half half marathon in February so I have to be able to run for longer otherwise I'll tank in the race.

With this mindset in place, despite the fact that at 45 minutes I was pretty much done in, I kept running and rounded off at an even, if completely unsatisfying, 50 minutes. Then I hit the couch and felt terrible for the rest of the day. Definitely not the smartest bit of training I've done this year.

This week I will get in a couple of runs but I will really, really try to go easy and will be willing to pull the plug if it doesn't go well.