Let's catch up

After the personal victory at the half-marathon in October I see in retrospect my mistakes.  Not in the race itself i ran it just as planned.  My mistake was in recovery.  I had a Halloween party that night so after running a personal best 13.1 miles I partied and drank until after midnight (no nap).  Same thing happened on New Years Eve except you can substitute 13.1 for 16.  I was so intent on making sure I got my miles in that I was not resting properly.  You may be asking yourself why do I bring this up in mid January?  It has finally caught up with me.

I was making comments almost daily in my running log about being tired and concern about overtraining and needing a break.  I even went to Runners World and took their "Are You Overtraining?" quiz.  According to the test I was doing fine.  When out of the blue a 24 hour stomach flu. It came complete with chills, fever, nausea and various and sundry GI issues.  Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are shot no running.

Saturday I run my 16 mile long run.  It was tough but I manage with a 9:45 average.  For the first time I'm beging to doubt.  I feel like time is running out and my endurance is not where it needs to be.

I understand the concept.  You train and train and train tired so that by the time you taper everything is great and the energy and endurance is there.  Still sucks.