Training Log: Cherry Blossom 10 Miler (Week 5)

It hardly seems right to call this a “training log” post, but because anyone can get sick while training for a race, I will share what I managed to do despite my constant need for a tissue.

Monday
AM Dog Walk: 1 mile
Weights: ITB Rehab Routine and strength routine

Tuesday
Treadmill: 40 min, with two tempo segments–10 min @ 6.5 mph and 10 min @ 6.7 mph
I started to feel sick Tuesday afternoon: sniffling, sneezing, head throbbing.

Wednesday
PM Dog Walk: 1 mile
I felt like I needed sleep more than I needed to do my strength routine, so I did not workout in the morning.  I took Dayquil to get through the day at work.

Thursday
PM Dog Walk: 1 mile
I still felt like crap. While Dayquil was getting me through the workday, I didn’t want to cover up my symptoms to workout because my primary goal was to get better quickly to be ready for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler next week.

Friday
AM Dog Walk: 1 mile
I was disappointed that my head still felt like a ball of lead, but felt too sick to feel antsy about working out. I still felt that pushing myself would be counter-productive in the long run.

Saturday
AM Dog Walk: 1 mile
On Friday night I still was not feeling well. I decided to sleep in on Saturday morning, and rearranged my Easter plans so I could go for a short run on Sunday morning. Saturday, my symptoms were intermittent, and I started to wonder if I am suffering from allergies instead of a cold. I crowd-sourced my dilemma on Facebook, and some friends suggested I try Allegra or Zyrtec.

I took a dose of Allegra on Saturday night, and it did seem to help, although when I woke up Sunday my head still felt heavy and my throat felt a bit sore. Still, I felt like I had to get out for a test run.  

Sunday
AM Dog Walk: 1 mile
Neighborhood run: 5.5 miles; 51:45 min (Avg. pave 9:24 min/mile)

So, my legs still worked and my lungs were OK, but my head still felt heavy.

I wanted to run at a comfortable pace without pushing myself. Instead of listing to my usual playlist I listened to NPR–the last segment of Backstory and most of On Being. I figured that without fast songs to push my pace, my pace would be more natural. Here’s my split times from Garmin Connect:

These split times generally reflect the hilliness of this route. My first mile usually is my slowest, since I am warming up and have to go up a hill almost right away. Mile 2 has a downhill segment, mile 3 is mostly flat, mile 4 has several uphill segments, mile 5 is flat, and the last half mile has two downhill segments. 

The big question now is what to do in these last few days before the race? I am tempted to do more than I usually do the week before a race because I did less than I had planned last week, but I am trying to remind myself that that could backfire. Also, despite taking four exercise “sick days,” I only missed one running day and only shortened my planned 6 mile “long run” by a half mile, so I didn’t end up that far off my training plan.

Because my work schedule is more flexible on Monday and Wednesday this week, I think I will go for short runs on Monday and Wednesday–and maybe Friday–and do my strength routine on Tuesday and Thursday. Monday will be another easy run, Wednesday will be a speed workout if I feel better, and Friday will be an easy run if I run at all. Saturday I will do one of my Rodney Yee programs.

The Cherry Blossom expo is hard for me to get to, so I signed up to have my shirt and bib mailed to me. They sent them out last week, so I have everything already.

I love the color!

Have you gotten sick the week before a race?

How did you adapt your training program?