Interval: Being sick sucks
And other quick hits as the long weekend comes to a close
I didn’t really plan on my second newsletter being almost 3000 words. I thought these would be 800-1000 words most weeks. Oops. I know I won’t always have a bunch of grand thoughts or ideas, but I still want to get something out, on average, once every week or so. I guess I’ll call these posts Intervals, which will be fun if I someday write about actual interval running. “Interval: Intervals” — very legal and very cool.
Anyway, it was a weird week for me, as I caught a (non-Covid) virus and was sidelined for 2.5 days. It also kept me from multiple March Madness watch parties. Given the improving weather, I don’t think I could have picked a worse week to be sick.
A reminder: I’ll be running in the Chicago Marathon later this year, doing so for St. Jude. If you’d like to support the cause, you can do so here. Thank you.
Since 2020 began, I would venture to guess I have missed 7-10 runs within my training cycles. Add in a couple of quarantines1 outside of training, and I’ve probably missed 20-25 days of running when I absolutely would have been out on the trail. An incredibly low number given (a) sometimes life just gets in the way, (b) normal wear and tear requiring a break, and (c) uh, there’s this pandemic thing.
That’s not to say I haven’t taken any breaks. Most of December saw me riding the Peloton, instead of running, because my body needed it. I also like to take a week or two off from running right before marathon training kicks off. After the Lincoln Half in May, I plan on running 5-10 times total the rest of the month. As I continue to push the limits of what I thought was possible running, the margin of error to improve is smaller and smaller. So I’ll want to go into June ready to go.
I’ve also been incredibly lucky with my health, not just the last couple of years, but throughout my life. When I’m sick, I can usually power through, get a workout in, and head to the office. I know my body pretty well, so I’ll keep an eye out on my heart rate and go from there.
Which is what really tipped me off that something was wrong earlier this week. After two of my best training runs ever on Monday2, I went out for a “comfortable” 45 minutes on Tuesday morning. My resting HR was way higher than normal leading up to the run, so I figured it would be a tough one. Sadly, I was right. I ended up running 4.83 miles and honestly worried I might have to take the day off. Made it through the rest of the workday ok, took Banks for a walk that night, and went to bed thinking I would make it past everything without needing a rest day.
In fact, I needed over two.
I’m now scared to miss training runs. As I mentioned above, I do take rest days. Not just outside of training, but inside too. The training plans I’ve used since last summer calls for one every three weeks. So I’m not averse to a day where I don’t run. But Wednesday (took the day off from work, missed two scheduled runs), Thursday (was off work because of the tournament, missed one scheduled run), and even part of Friday (was off again because of the tournament, had two scheduled runs, skipped one), I had this constant worry that I was going to slow down my progress and lose all sorts of fitness.
Which, of course, is laughable. But in my constant worry on Wednesday, I actually looked up how long it takes to lose the fitness you’ve built up. I read a few articles. Watched a video from a trainer. It’s not like I was going to reverse course and head outside for my two scheduled runs, but it was nice confirming that things would be ok! SPOILER ALERT: I could have remained on my couch for another week and barely lost a step.
The further I get into going after a three-hour marathon, the more I don’t want to lose any of the gains I’ve had. But this week was probably necessary for me. I missed a handful of runs. I wasn’t able to force myself into running through an illness. I needed some time off. If only to remind myself that everything’s going to be ok, even when it feels like it’s not.
Cool down:
Oh yeah, I’m also about to move. Next week’s newsletter is about my time running in midtown. I’m going to miss the Field Club Trail (and the trails it ends up connecting with) quite a bit. I’ll still run it after work here and there, but 7-10 times a week is coming to a close. Thus, missing out on four runs hit me harder than it should.
Lately, I have spent a lot of time thinking about the Chicago, Boston, and New York City marathons. I imagine I’ll write a whole lot more about Chicago as the race gets closer, but that 26.2 is going to mean a ton to me. And while NYC is what I hope to run in 2028 when I turn 40 (!!!), I haven’t really put together a game plan on Boston. I like writing out my goals, so I imagine I’ll be putting pen to paper on this soon.
Speaking of Chicago, Boston, and NYC: It’s not just the races, but the merch, that I’m excited for. I’ve decided to put aside some money before each of those marathons, because I want to come home with… stuff. I’m such a loser.
I continue to make gains in a way I really didn’t think were possible. I was looking over my current training plan on Sunday — Nine weeks ago, I kicked off training with a comfortable 45:00 run. I ran 4.77 miles at a 9:26 pace, with an average HR of 138. Yesterday, I got to 5.05 at an 8:54 clip. My average HR was 134. The weather being better certainly played a difference. And most of my “comfortable” runs have been at a sub-9:00 mile pace lately. But to see those two runs like that? It made me excited, because I didn’t expect that type of improvement in such a short amount of time.
At some point in the next few years, I will enter a race with the goal of a sub-three hour marathon happening in that race. I don’t have any plans on doing so this year, and probably not even next year.
But it seems like I’m close to entering a weird spot where I know I can best my PR (currently 3:24:58) but will be too slow to really go all out for sub-three. I’ve always figured I would go into a specific run with the goal of hitting 2:59:59. That said, what if I’m running better in a different race and it’s in reach? BUT! What if it is and I don’t get it? It’s kind of breaking my brain. I’ll expand on this more sometime. It’s been on my mind too much lately not to.
Bring on the spring weather.
I tested positive for Covid in December of 2020, my girlfriend in February of 2021.
Monday was a double day — 52:00 in the morning (this actually was an interval run!) + 40:00 at night (comfortable pace) — I ended up running almost 11 miles and I would venture to guess that I’ll be thinking about how good those two runs were for a long, long time.
Your blog had me laughing as I was reading it while lying in bed trying to recover from the flu. Right before reading it I was reviewing my training and upset about losing 2 days because I was worried about a loss in my fitness. Like you I had read many articles about this topic and knew the truth but that was what I was contemplating. Crazy how your brain/mind reacts even when you know the facts. Oh well, I have learned to listened to my body more than anything and my body was saying it needed a break. Just glad it was now and not closer to race day. Doubt I will miss another training day for awhile, LOL. Thanks for lifting my spirits while I was down.