Recovery

Do you know that feeling when you are just getting over a really nasty [insert virus here]? You've been staying home from work with a box of tissues watching bad daytime t.v. and after a short time you start to feel better. You convince yourself that your energy has picked up and besides, you couldn't possibly stay inside your house for another minute, as you are convinced the walls are starting to shrink and you're going a little stir-crazy. So you pick yourself off the couch and go back to work.
And then you feel like you've been run over by a truck.
Because what you didn't realize while lounging around on the couch moving nothing more than your thumb when flicking channels on the t.v. remote is that you still really are sick. All energy is being spent fighting off your nasty illness and there is nothing left for other activities.
So while you feel not-sick-enough to stay home and do nothing, you are also too-sick to go in to work. It's a bit frustrating.
That has been my week of running. Now, I know I'm not recovering from any illness (thank goodness!). But I underestimated exactly how much the Whitsunday Race would take out of me. Having not run for a week, I showed up at Tuesday's speed session all smiling and ready to go.
Until I started running.
I felt great, I felt keen...but my legs would just not work. So instead of doing "sprints" per se, I participated in "very fast jogs" as that's all I could handle.
Even though the sprints were shorter this session - 400m rep with a 100m recovery - it was still about 350m too long for me! I managed in the end, but it was hard. I wasn't sore, I just couldn't get my legs to move, simple as that.

Total time: 58.35
Total distance: 9.30km
Average pace: 6.31min/km

Given how I pulled up on Tuesday, I took Thursday as another rest day. I didn't think I could walk up hills, let alone run them!
And so here I was today doing an "easy" 12k with the group. But it didn't exactly feel easy!
I mistakenly ran the first 4k with some faster people and struggled to keep up with the 5.15/5.30 pace. Wisely, I dropped back to the slower group who were running at a more reasonable speed for me!
It was great being back among friends and sharing in excitement over achievements (my Whitsunday race) and goals (Melbourne event next weekend for many!). And then we waffled on about work, life, news headlines and the likes. I can't say it made those 12k go faster, but it certainly made them more enjoyable.
After the run, we had a lovely sending off breakfast to celebrate those who have trained for Melbourne. Perfect timing for me that the squad training is winding down a bit over the next week to prepare for Melbourne, as apparently my legs are still recovering! But then really, it hasn't even been two weeks yet. I guess I'll just have to take this journey nice and slow. I'm good at that!

Total time:  1.13.13
Total distance: 12.3km
Average pace: 5.58min/km

ps - one more picture of the Whitsunday race! We came up from the right along the ridge (yes, the top one) before coming down into Airlie Beach out front.