I had to be home for the kids at 3:30pm so the day flew past at work in even more of a blur than usual. I knew that I would have to sandwich my recovery run between leaving work, and picking the kids up as I usually end up spending a few hours working in the evening when I have to do a short day at work.
As I jogged up to the gym in the afternoon, my legs felt absolutely shocking and I was working much too hard to get up the hills. I was worried about how much the long run had taken out of me so I decided to just do a few miles on the bike in the gym. However, after 10 minutes, it was just too irritating, so I hopped on the treadmill for the last 15 minutes before I needed to be home. The whole experience was crap to be honest - I had no motivation at all. Still 4 miles done at recovery pace - with a few miles on the bike. Schedule compliance at least.
Later that evening, serious fatigue settled in, and I started to realise that this was more than being knackered. I took my temperature and was gutted to get a reading of 102 degrees. Shit - proper flu, not even the man-flavoured pretend variety.
The next few days followed a similar pattern: struggle out of bed for work, take paracetamol, walk to work, splutter about at work, walk 1 mile home, recover from 1 mile walk as if it was a hard 10 miler, eat too much crap food, go to bed, wake up several times in night with crippling calf cramps. By Friday, I skipped the going to work bit, and spent the day rotating the hours between working and sleeping.
Obviously, I am wondering whether my immune system was too low after the hard week's training, and whether this let the flu virus take hold. Or was it just bad luck? I don't know. What I do know is that when you have an aggressive virus like flu, your body's white blood cells are sent as an immediate priority to fight the virus. This means they neglect their other duties - like repairing tired muscles. And, this is why even a bit of exercise can leave you feeling shattered. It is also why there is no point trying to keep fit whilst you have flu. It's like withdrawing money from your bank without ever topping up your account. You are just going to overdraw and pay the penalty.
Saturday morning was the Sheffield primary school cross-country championships and Isla's Y5/Y6 team was in with a shout of a medal. So, I wrapped up super-warm for a chilly hour or two at Graves Park and wisely changed Isla's spikes for some monster 12 mils.
Isla did great finishing 1st in her team and 11th out of about 150 kids (despite being a relatively young Y5). The team finished 3rd in the championships and the league. Isla looked strong as anything coming up that last bloody hill (light blue t-shirt, bright long socks) - and as I jogged towards the finishing line I realised my legs had a bit of bounce too. I still spent most of Saturday afternoon asleep though, and was back in bed for 10:30pm.
Sunday morning was supposed to be a warm-up race at the Norton 9. But, despite waking up feeling loads better, I knew that the amount of crap in my lungs, and my partial state of recovery, would not be a recipe for a good race. Anyway, I had the kids to look after as Deb's VLM training is continuing in full flow and she had the same warm-up race in her schedule.
It was good to see so many SRC runners having a good race in seriously tough windy conditions. But, obviously, I was at my proudest when Deb came storming down the hill in the kind of company that would have beaten her by several minutes last year. Deb was 3rd woman but missed out on any prizes because she entered on the day. It's the taking part that counts though!
So, all in all a crap week. I am now going to have to revise the schedule to allow for a gentle 1 - 2 weeks whilst I clear my lungs, and get the knots out of my calf muscles (from the nightly cramps that have now thankfully stopped). But, recovery week 1 starts tomorrow.
Obviously, the PB-smashing VLM is a fading hope now, but I am not going to let it get me down. If I can train for the next 8 weeks, I should still be more than capable of getting under 2:45 and securing a champs place for next year if I want it. And, and there plenty more races to run and PBs to challenge.
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