Cancel everything: I'm taking up knitting

Posted by simon on 5/5/2007 on simon's blog | Groups: Sub-5 Minute Miling

I've never stepped off the track in the middle of a workout before, unless I've been injured.

Today it just seemed pointless to continue. I hadn't run in earnest for a week and was looking forward to letting rip on the track, with Bobby putting me and Kyle through an extensive warm-up, then a 1200m tt, 45 seconds rest then 400m. To finish us off, he had lined up 5 x 200m. Well, that was the plan...

First I was late. Despite 4 emails telling us it was 10am, I got it in my head it was 11am. So.. something going on there for starters. I warmed up OK. Strides were fine. First lap of the 1200 was good -- comfortable at 76 seconds -- then...I got slower and slower and my breathing more and more laboured. I fought through the second lap, then got even slower. With 150m to go I had to stop. It just wasn't happening. I couldn't breathe.

Frustration and dejection. This is a week after IV iron -- a enforced rest week, at that. And it seems it has had no effect whatsoever.

We are running out of ideas about what is going on. Right now I am vascillating between "punishing" myself with a 100-mile week and giving up running and taking up something a little less strenuous -- like knitting. It's called "black and white" thinking and a sure sign of acute depression and stress, tinged with anger. Give me a day or so and I'll be a bit less extreme about it, I know.

Meanwhile, a naturopath friend of mine in England tells me he's just seen a girl in his clinic who has come for help with breast cancer: she is 20 years old! Perspective. It helps.

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2 comments

Em says:

Oh Simon, how frustrating! I feel like that's where I was a couple of years ago, I was training better/harder/smarter - I tried resting more, I tried pushing harder and I still just kept getting slower and slower. At least I had my diagnosis of hypothyroidism to blame, but I thought once I got my meds worked out things would be better. And of course, I still wonder, did the intense training I was doing actually contribute to my thyroid breaking down? Not to make this all about me. :-)

I've been lurking around your blog and hoping that the IV iron was going to do the trick for you. I think it's really normal to feel angry. I know for me, it's always such a shock when my body doesn't do exactly what I want, when I want. And of course, you're right, perspective does help, in the big picture of life this isn't so bad. In fact it puts me in mind of a song ...

Some things in life are bad,
They can really make you mad.
Other things just make you swear and curse.
When you're chewing on life's gristle,
Don't grumble, give a whistle,
And this'll help things turn out for the best, and...

Always look on the bright side of life ...

;-) Take care.

by Em (not verified) on Sun, 2007-05-06 05:47

simon says:

That's brilliant Em...just imagining Eric Idle's face as he sings that in Monty Python's Life of Brian always makes me laugh: one of my all-time favourites!

I'm beginning to think that the altitude we are training at, plus the intensity, really clobbers us more than we realize. I know it's taking you a long time to work your way back. It's just like being injured, isn't it? Only it's a biochemical/physiological injury instead of a physical one.

Thanks for reminding me what to do while "chewing on life's gristle", hahahahahahaha

by simon on Sun, 2007-05-06 15:07