I woke up this morning at around 8 still sore from yesterday's 23k long training run. My morning ritual of going down the stairs to the kitchen for my double cream no sugar coffee determines how I am feeling for the day (in terms of mileage to run or cross training to do). This morning, unlike the Monday morning after my Around the Bay 30k race, I did not have to hold on to the railing and just walked down the stairs quite normally with a little discomfort/soreness. I guess my body is getting used to the extra mileage, and I find that I don't have to do ice bathing on my feet,legs and thighs as much as I did before.
I was just so surprised when I looked out the window and saw wet snow still falling at this time of the year.. While the streets were just wet but clear of snow, the pedestrian walkways, yards and roofs of houses were all white and covered with snow that must have fallen in the evening. I did not fight the urge to take some pictures of my neighborhood, the front and the back just to show how miserable the weather here in Markham is even in this early part of spring. The past week looked promising ,weather wise , as we got a lot of sunny days although the temperature was still hovering about 2-5 degrees above zero. I think this bad weather maybe the last gasp of winter , and then we're in for a warm, beautiful spring weather which would be ideal and conducive to running outdoors. Whenever we have bad weather like this, I think about runners in the Philippines who are so lucky to be able to run in warm weather all year round. I envy them.
I decided to do light weight training in my basement for an hour, after which I read some running blogs mostly Pinoy bloggers. I'm so proud to learn from Baldrunner of the success of the Bataan Death March 102k Ultramarathon race with 65 finishers out of 81 participants. Way to go Baldrunner! And congratulations to all participants, finishers or not. You're all heroes to us new runners, just for being brave enough to try and test your physical and mental limits.
I also had a chance to download my pictures, however few, of my longest race, the Around the Bay 30k. I am quite proud to earn the orange technical shirt which says older than Boston . I took some pictures of how the outside of our house looks with the crappy weather we're having today.
Hopefully the weather improves tomorrow for my 10k tempo training run. If not, the old reliable treadmill is just a staircase away down in my basement.
hi bong. congratulations for running the 30k!!! wow. i wonder if i'll ever get to do that. my injuries pull me back. well, be injure free and happy running.
ReplyDeleteHi Bong. So your question, should you have stopped at 23k of a 29k because of tiredness and fatigue? Well it all depends on how you have been feeling lately. If lately you have been more tired and sore than the usual, had more than the usual fatigue then I would say that your body needed the extra rest and probably shortening your LSD was a good idea. If your training has been going well, you've been feeling good overall, maybe you just had a stressful week at work, then I am with the opinion that you should have just pushed for the 29k. Walking would have been fine, time on your feet is important. As you know tiredness and fatigue is all part of the fun:) so you would have benefitted in pushing through.
ReplyDeleteIt's my feeling that if your body has been lacking in recovery and rest as mine has been, more hard workouts will only make the situation worse. Back down and recover before continuing to build. If your fatigue and tiredness was from the effort and distance then it would have done you good to have pushed through. Don't forget the mental part of training. Pushing through a tough workout does wonders for your confidence. To sum up. Your body is either "beat down" from hard training or simply "beat up" from the workout. I back down on the former and push through on the latter. My .02 cents.
P.S. Bong, I've been following the posts about the Bataan 102k as well and day dreaming of all the Pinoy food stuffs that they enjoyed afterwards. Arroz Caldo during the race?! Only in PI and sounds better than the chicken soup they serve at our long trail races.