Wednesday, November 30, 2011

It Couldn’t Have Come At A Better Time!

Trust my body to succumb to the subtlety of stress. I caught a mild cough and running nose a few days before the big dance. Teaching in enclosed places such as classrooms can invite malicious microbes to launch an assault on my mucous membranes. I could only ward off the influence for so long, and now I am innocently paying for it.

I recall suffering my pre-A Race bout of pre-racing, stress-related diseases such as a cough, running nose and stomach flu. Two weeks ago, I had my first case of gastrointestinal distress, and it cost me some downtime in training. I was tapering from a few long-distance runs such as the 50K and 30K, and thought I could get away with doing any more boring Long Slow Distance (LSD) sessions. My speed-work was affected by these interruptions that upset my body’s equilibrium.

This evening, in Bali I ran my first session this week after two days of intense teaching and traveling. I ran on a relatively flat stretch of beach in the Jimbaran area for 40 minutes, inserting short spurts of sprinting. I intended to exorcise the latency out of my legs, which surprisingly was not docile after Sunday’s 150-minute bike ride. I had to dodge casted fishing lines, soccer-playing kids, and couples strolling by the evasive sunset. Running a semi-wet beach was akin to trail running, with a sense of alertness to the surface I was traipsing across.

Generous shots of vitamin C-laced water later, I hope to rest abundantly and recover soon to be in relatively good shape for a good marathon. I have gathered a few serious age-groupers (such as Melvin and Han Low) to run their BQs, and I hope to have enough motivation to stay on-target and in sane pace to limbo-rock under the 3:25:00 barrier. If all goes well, I should have stories and strategies to share.

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