Blame it on the burger...

Saturday 24/02/07:
Friday was a rest day from running, and oh boy was I glad to see that working week end... Training new staff is so time-consuming, but also oh so necessary and must be done correctly and thoroughly in my opinion. This one is taking longer than it should, but at least she has the right attitude - so provided that remains and it all clicks into place in the end, I don't really mind. What I don't like is that my own work-load is suffering and I hate being behind and not feeling in control... I hate having to tell others that they will have to wait for something as I haven't been able to get it done yet. Knowing there is a good reason for it just doesn't cut it... This has resulted in working late and bringing work home, which I usually try to avoid. Oh well, it won't last forever...

This morning I really struggled to get out the door for my run, even tho I really wanted to. Had a divine gourmet burger (Burgerfuel - my favourite!) for dinner last night - it was a 'Beetnik' - mushroom, kumara, chickpea and basil pattie, beetroot, cheddar, salad, relish and aioli. Yum! However at 6am this morning, when I had been almost permanently camped in the bathroom for an hour, I was blaming it on the burger! At 6.45am when the alarm came on, I had been back in bed for a little while and was feeling a bit better... Still, I was a bit nervous about heading out... In the end I decided I had two options - stay in bed, miss my run and hover near the bathroom all morning OR take a couple of Imodium, strap the shoes on, pack a couple of tissues and hope for the best!

After thinking about what todays run was going to entail, I selected option 2. I doubt I would have had the courage to head out on a 20+km run with a group of others like I have the last few weeks, but that wasn't the plan today anyway. Not only was Rob and a couple of others from the group off running the Cathay Pacific HM, but my plan was only asking for half that distance today anyway and with some intervals, which wouldn't have fitted with what the group was doing.

Off I went on my own, Imodiumed, Polared and i-Poded. Again, great weather conditions, can't actually remember the last time I ran in the rain (which I like!) or in fact when it rained other than over-night... A great late run of weather for Auckland! Did a loop that includes parts I haven't run for a while. Did about 3/4 of the distance before I started the intervals.

Brisk walk warmup: 5mins
Steady paced run, then intervals: 60.05 mins - 12.06kms. Max 3.27min/km, Ave 4.58min/km. Intervals were 90secs hard, 45secs jog x 5.
Brisk walk cooldown: 5mins

Took a couple of kms for both the legs and tummy to settle into it, then felt good during the steady section and covered around 7kms prior to starting the intervals. Ran as hard as I could at the time, but the Max still surprises me! The 45sec jog sections were very deliberately very slow - almost on the spot but not quite! That's one time when its not difficult to keep my pace down! By the 3rd Hard section my stomach was complaining, but I pushed on. It really was quite a struggle after that tho and getting rather hot too, so the last 2kms were quite a bit slower than the first 7kms.

In the end I was just glad to have made it home without requiring a 'pit stop'! Things deteriorated a little after that tho and I continued to feel unwell all day and could hardly eat a thing... When Courtney started feeling a bit the same way by late morning, I stopped blaming the burger! So while we're not exactly 'sick' we have both required a very quiet day and she had a very early night. I should probably be doing the same...

Plan to do a short, sharp spin round a 5km loop in the morning - a bit of HM 'race pace' stuff to make sure I am prepared for two weeks time... Then we are meant to be off to the Pet Expo rather early - lets hope everyone is feeling up to it!