Reversing the logic

This post was written Sunday evening…. more happened to be recap in the next post

Husband is sick. Sofia is fully recovered. I had 17 miles run in the book. Imagine how anxious I was… each sensation could turn into medical examination of whether I wasgetting sick too. Then amplification of that starting with I won’t make it to my long run. I am still negative according to antigen test, yet, I was suspicious.

I tried to “prepare” the best I can on Saturday for my longest run so far during the training cycle, in the most stressful week of the year. Sighhh…. I did minimal physical activity, took a lot of rest, tried to watch Netflix, and ate abundantly even not hungry.

girls played with a small set of lego for hours…

we ordered everybody’s favorite food. dumplings for Lizzy, sushi for Sofia. Everybody was happy.

Sunday 4:25am. My oura tells me I slept well, my readiness score was 82, highest of the week. Yet, I was not sure. I packed my water, electrolytes, 3 gels, ate one ucan bar and left home. I walked 3 blocks to the starting line. My HR was almost 120 by just walking. Not good sign. I ignored it and started jogging. Nothing felt odd at the point but my rather high HR for warm up.

Miles went by and my HR hovered around 140-145 intentionally so I don’t over exert too early.

Maybe around mile 6, I realized I was doing okay, not fully energized as other runs, but my pace was ok. So I thought, instead of checking if I could finish it with my suspicious being sick condition, maybe this run can be proof that I am actually not sick. Can anybody sick run 17 miles?

I finished without issue, even with energy left in the tank because I hold back my pace and effort for 16 miles. My legs were sore but I knew I could run couple more miles.

Covid taught me inmd body connection, and I am using it in my favor. If I tell my mind to stop making up things, and go with the flow, my HR actually went down to 137. Magic right? I’m now excited to use this “technique” in future runs.

Another thing I realize is that I do better for long runs with slow calming music. Not podcast as I need to focus/think, not fast beat music as it makes me want to go faster. Only slow calming music is good companion to keep my stress level down while giving me something to go with the flow.

For the rest of Sunday I rested a lot. This must be the hardest training week so far. So I guess it took a toll to my body with this long run, so I gave it hours of restorative time. My daytime heart rate slowly came down from 80s to 60s in the afternoon. Everybody napped… Sofia with Cookie as companion

post edit

I’m currently in Jakarta… and let’s say the crazy ride of last week continued .. later.