Monday: I was in São Paulo and it was my rest day. I did 30 min swim in this pool. Very refreshing.
Tuesday: another rest day as I took 6am flight back home and left hotel 4:15am. I was exhausted by 7pm.
Wednesday: I was supposed to do 4 sets of thresholds workout of 10 min each. But since I was on heavy period feeling weak, I did 2 sets and let the rest of the run easy. Slimfit followed as I missed Tuesday workout. I felt weak and bit dizzy the rest of the day, and anxious about a meeting in the morning and then anxious about heavy period. I consulted my doctor and she said that during perimenopause heavy and irregular period is common. Well… I’m not used to that. Went to bed early.
Thursday: the sleep was restorative. I skipped the run as I still not feeling fully energized and wanted to conserve energy for the race. Went to slimfit though. It always makes me feel better.
Friday: 20 min shake out run. It felt ok as the weather was so different than Brasilia, with humidity over 90%.
Saturday: the race. I started well feeling good for the first 3 miles (8:41, 8:21, 8:21). Then the second 3 miles I hold on to 8:08-30, still feeling good. Then mile 7 and 8 when we passed through a tunnel, my stomach felt weird, my left knee started to feel and I got some lower back discomfort every now and then as they were some bridges with hills. I battled mentally what to do with it, push through with uncertainty how it will affect my recovery to continue the training, or be conservative and run by feel. Well… when you have a seemingly legitimate excuse not to race, the mind will convince itself not to push. So I just ran the rest of the rest by feel onward. I didn’t watch my watch until the end of the race, indeed my HR was rather high, averaging 162, peaking 177. So it wasn’t completely a usual LR. Am I disappoint not to PR and finished almost 8 min slowe than 2 years ago? Yes a bit. But I think it was the right call. I can’t afford to get injure now nor take a full week of training as I’m 10 week out. So sometimes one needs to be discipline to know when to pull back.
Sunday: rest. I felt very recovered thanks to another good night of sleep. I sleep so well during vacations. my legs are not really sore, only the posterior side was still sore and I asked the massage therapist to work on it more.
Overall, this week was not as perfect as planned due to unexpected heavy period episode. I played conservative which I think was the wise thing to do. it’s not always easy to hold back during training nor race, but that’s where being more confident about the process and maturity about ego paid off.
Monday I’ll see my physio to do lower back and posterior release further to get back on track with training. Only 2+ months away from the marathon, the heavy training is starting!!! Excited and a bit scared, which is exactly where I should be.
Our New Journey 