Doing the sensible thing...

Something strange happened today.

I did the sensible thing... Oh how amazed my Mum and Dad will be ;o)

My week has gone something like this (I'll get to the "sensible" bit in a mo)....

Get home Monday horribly jet-lagged to be greeted with traditional British bank holiday weather = thunderstorms, downpours and cold... nice. So quickly ditched the idea of a bike session, and run for that matter... at least outside and headed into the gym for a couple of hours of pain of the brick variety (30:10*3). So far so good.

Tuesday was a visit to the physio to check out the dodgey toe issue I've been having... LUCKILY it doesn't seem to be a stress fracture (and breath that huge sigh of relief, I wasn't looking forward to the pain from the ultrasound if it had been!)... but a mere inconvenience of something with a fancy name "metatarsalgia" or "pain in the foot" as I prefer to call it... humm so my nice physio gave me some accupunture and some ultrasound and told me to stay off it for a "few days"... so I checked with him what he meant, the conversation went something like this;

ME: So it won't be ok to run tomorrow?
ADRIAN: No
ME: Ok so Thursday, I've got a 1hr40 run scheduled for Thursday
ADRIAN: No, you shouldn't
ME: So Friday then, I can swap some sessions around
ADRIAN: No, I mean you need to rest it....
ME: OK so the weekend then?
ADRIAN: No Karen, you really need to rest it a week, and ice it too.
KAREN: OH...

In my mind....

WHAT?

7 DAYS ARE YOU KIDDING!!!!

ARE YOU SURE!!!???

AGHH!

I've not done a long long (ie 2hr run) since before my last half marathon, and now I'm not going to .... aghhhhh...Oh.. Hummm.. so I panic and sent an email to coach Phil... being the calm, cool, experienced, welshman that he is obviously this is no problem as he'll just switch by long runs into x-trainer:bike and treadmill:weight sessions from hell instead.... Panic kind of over

and then we get to Wednesday
0230 (yes in the morning) I wake, feel a bit yukky
0330 I wake and yes I am a bit yukky; hello dinner you don't look so good the second time around
0430 I decide (as you do when you've been barfing for an hour - all common sense flushed down the loo), that I should text my work colleagues to tell them I wouldn't make it in the next day (we had a thing on at work)... the thought of a train journey in the rush hour was making me want to heave even more...

So I had to "rest" anyhow Wednesday and Thursday due to extreme feelings of nausea and such.. blur

{yes yes I'm getting to the sensible bit}

Friday at trip back to Adrian for more needles and ultrasound - my foot by the way now makes me look like I could be some kind of heroine addict as it has pin marks between my toes...

So Saturday then. A lovely day yesterday and the "plan" called for a 2 hr ride, 15mins warm-up 1.5hrs and perceived HIM pace and the a 15min warm-down. As I had managed food on Friday I thought I was ok to give it a go.... no problems, some queasiness but actually I felt ok... then managed my 10min run which wasn't so good in the tummy and foot areas. Still I did it all and ate a hearty meal out with friends in the evening..... and then my tummy basically told me to sod off again... although I wasn't sick I'm definitely not right (if you get my meaning)

TODAY then (I'm getting there honest)
Today I had a 4hour easy ride on the plan with a light run off. Now easy I don't think necessarily constitutes doing some of the hardest hills around this area. But I had planned a lovely 103k around Reading route taking in some lovely countryside so I thought, well it may take me over the allotted 4 hours and it may not be easy but it'll give me a real confidence boast doing those hills, particularly if I can conquer the infamous streatley hill having already covered 60+k.

So off I set, not a bad day for it.....

... Got to Streatley (well Goring to be precise which is the other side of the river) where I think I made a mistake... having stopped for a break of nature I decided to quickly scoff a banana before going up the hill... now had this scoff been 5k or even 1k away then probably fair enough. But no, i ate it just at the bottom of the hill... HUMM.. what a dumbo! The good news was a ploughed up the hill mostly seated (amazing) with 4 out of saddle climbs... by the time I got to the top I really thought I was going to see that banana again... humm... and that feeling stayed with me.. and stayed and stayed... and then stayed some more... I got to about 70+ k in to the journey with some 30 to go and felt really really sick... like about to heave any minute sick.

And this is where I got sensible.

I stopped, looked at the map.... "could cut off and head to a train station and ditch the remaining ks home"... the dilemma being I really wanted to get that 100k ride in.... BUT (i) I felt rough and (ii) I achieved my test which was doing the Streatley with 2+hours already done in my legs (plus other climbs already)....... so I ummed and aghhed for a while... then figured "you know what, you've not been feeling great for a few days, food isn't sticking in your system so you're gonna feel like crap, if you carry on you're going to feel worse. You know you could do the distance so why bother when there's no real need to."....."you know what your Mum would say"....

So they won't believe me (my Mum and Dad that is)... but I did the SENSIBLE THING... I headed the 5ish k to Theale station and got a train to one near me, just a little 5k ride to home from there which was quite a good warm-down (and better then the 30 which I was still facing if I had not cut it short).

I ditched the run after too... I'm still being sensible and I'm still feeling like food is a precious commodity which doesn't want to play ball with me!

So it seems at the ripe age of 38 I can do the sensible thing (ok don't expect that every time).....

OH AND BEFORE I GO..

HUGE (HUGE) SHOUT OUT TO FELLOW LISBONKER, ANGEL, who completed her first HIM today Switzerland 70.3.. WELL DONE GIRL!