Semi-Happy Returns

Well after a week with my grandparents in sunny Florida, a week celebrating a friend's grad from vet school in Colorado (yay!) and two weeks rafting down the Grand Canyon with my sister, I returned to...winter.
Yep, the chill in the air and in the house reminded me that it's time to search for my cuddly heating blanket gathering dust under the bed. Siiigh! I'd rather be back in the Arizona desert camping under the stars and barrelling through the rapids.
Is it any wonder that after five weeks of no training I was a bit reluctant to return?
But I wasn't completely a sloth on my vacation! I did, after all, go for - count them - three runs in the past five weeks. Twice in Colorado with my veterinarian friend, and once last Saturday in Brisbane with my fabulous housemate to remind me of what I've been missing for the past month.
Saturday's run was really a warm-up so that I wouldn't be so reluctant this morning to get out there.
I made it as easy as possible to return to training: I went to bed early so I could wake up early (check), I got my gear all set to go so it would be ready in the morning (check), and I'd even been waking up at 5am the previous couple of days for work so I was prepared for the early start (check).
But brrrr, was it cold! And I was nervous, since I knew that today would hurt.
It did.
My coach kept me down for the times I had been running. 5 weeks ago. Before I left.
Today was 5-6x 800m reps at 3k race pace, with a 500m recovery. For me, that was a time of 3.46min. Yikes! After 5 weeks off, I couldn't begin to guess what I would be capable of today.
Fortunately, there was a big group of us "3.46ers" as we called ourselves. But as we got to the start line, everyone had some excuse of why they were not setting the pace. Who would we then benchmark if nobody was stepping up to the plate?
Like a palindrome, the six of us "3.46ers" all jostled around as we tried to find our pace, calling out jokes and encouragements to slow it down or speed it up, depending.

Lap 1: 3.44. Ka-zing! I felt really good this rep. I took a slower recovery but made sure I was back at the start line with my group.

Lap 2: 3.45. There was considerably less joking and talking from the group. And for me, it hurt. Yikes! At least three more of these reps to go!

Lap 3: 3.45. Oh boy, this one was a struggle. I worried about the other two. My coach was impressed that - considering my long break - I was managing as well as I was. I stopped pretending to do the recovery with my group and did my own recovery (aka, a staggering walk as I sucked in air as hard as I could).

Lap 4: 3.52. I just couldn't hold on to it, in the end. My mind - and body - got the best of me. My coach encouraged me to take a longer recover - not just a slower one. But for once I didn't listen to him. Because I knew if I wasn't running with my 3.46ers, I would have no one to benchmark against. And with no one to benchmark against, I would go much, much slower.

Lap 5: 3.48. Ballpark! I'll take that number! It's only 2-seconds off (I count everything within 5sec of the goal time as "ballpark"). I felt like I had run 10 times that distance. Yikes, am I unfit!

Lap 6: are you kidding? While the other gung-ho 3.46ers took off I hung back with everyone else. They had tried to cajole me into going but I was having none of it. I was happy with my training today, and I wanted to end it when I felt good about it.

But racing season is coming up. So it's time for me to crack down on my lazy "whatever" attitude towards training and start following the program my coach has set up for me. Hopefully under his tutelage, I will be seeing a fast return to fitness!