Monday, June 20, 2005

Dazed and Confused

Tonight I didn't enjoy running. I joined Geoff's group at Parliament House for our usual hill session. I wanted to run the hill circuits with some sort of purpose and aggression. For the past 6 weeks we've been running a 637 metre loop with includes a 70 metre 'decent' sloped hill which is run three times each circuit.

We've been running 6 repetitions of this circuit starting every 5 minutes. Last Monday I ran pretty hard after a sluggish start and averaged 2:55 for each circuit. Tonight I could barely muster enough energy to run 3:30. I felt bad!

Why can't I predict the days when I'm going to feel good? My weekend was, for me, a big one as I ran 42 kilometres. On Saturday I ran the Cotter '15 mile' with a fair bit of effort averaging 5:22 per kilometre over a hilly course. On Sunday morning I ran a very easy 18 kilometres in the Frees. I thought the easy Sunday would leave me feeling OK tonight. It did not.

I'm not feeling sorry for myself. I'm just a little dazed and confused. I can't plan when to have a hard session. I don't want to have a rest day before every hard run. I think I'll just have to tough it out and run hard when those 'good feeling' days come to me.

At least my bad training day wasn't in the public spotlight. There was an important race on Saturday afternoon up and down Mount Majura where a couple of runners I know had 'off days'. It's particularly sad when you've predicted somebody to put in a spectacular performance but for some unknown reason it just doesn't happen. I'm sure these runners will bounce back in the future and leave spectators amazed and delighted.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Isn't a wombat entitled to have a 'bad day' now & again like the rest of us? One bad session leaves you "just a little dazed & confused"? Well, lucky you! Because that's about the way I spend most of my life now!!! It was just a 'not so good session' & not until you begin to get lost in runs can you claim to be dazed and/or confused! So there! LL

CJ said...

You're not alone - there have been days when I've been totally perplexed with my running and/or swimming. But you have been putting in the km's and sometimes the body needs to take it a bit easier even if the mind is refusing. Hang in there :-)