The stomach flu is going around in the family. First my brother and sister-in-law and niece had it. Bad. Then my husband and my dad got it. Then last night poor Calvin was throwing up repeatedly.
I woke this morning feeling queasy and with a roiling stomach. I knew I was to do a 10K fartlek, and I figured I'd better at least try to eat a banana. It went down OK and I went to work for an hour to stain some slides. The slides have to incubate with the primary antibody for at least an hour so I figured I'd go do my track workout during the incubation and then go back to work to finish up the staining after the workout. At work, I felt OK and ate a few crackers. Still queasyish but I felt up for a workout.
It was sunny and clear and beautiful at the track, albeit a bit windy and not terribly warm at 34F (~1C). The wind chilled me every time I went around the north side of the track. I did have some entertainment though, as Roland, the coach of Central City Cheetahs track club for kids, was there with a bunch of kids working on jumping skills. They were jumping on a springboard and then onto a padded mat, without a bar at first and then with a bar. Later, they did small hurdles and some other stuff. They were still there when I finished, and I chatted with Roland a bit about teaching some of the kids to racewalk in the spring - he seemed quite amenable! Calvin and Michelle will both be in the club this year (it's for ages 6-18) so that should be fun.
I warmed up for 1600m in 9:51 and felt OK, though slightly tight and with some minor soreness in glutes and hammies. I stretched out with some good dynamic stretches, and then got going. The first 4K or so felt a bit strained, though I was fast enough. I had to stop briefly at 4K to remove my fleece, as I was getting hot despite the wind (the wind makes it really tricky to decide how to dress for a workout!). After I took the fleece top and pants off (I still had on tights and a long-sleeved shirt and gloves and a hat) I felt much smoother and faster. Weird. Not sure if it was just being more warmed-up, or if it was that the fleece inhibited my motion, but I felt better. Lots better. By 5-6K I was feeling stronger and better and as the workout went on I just felt good, amazingly. The only caveat was that I had some GI cramps around 8.5-10k, but they weren't too awful and I was able to continue without slowing or stopping.
My times were nice and fast - the first km was 5:29, all of the recoveries were 3:00 or less, and all of the fast segments were 2:49 or less except for one, which was the 4th km in 2:52 (but then I had a fast recovery there because of the rest while removing the fleece). My 5K split was 28:32, 8K was 45:53, and the 10K was 57:28. Wow, fast! This is actually my 2nd fastest 10K ever. Today's time was 7 seconds faster than my time at World Masters in Sacramento, and only the very-much-downhill Deseret News 10K this July was faster, at 56:32. I felt really strong today, too, and my average HR was not that high at 162. That's probably about where it ought to be for a hard 10K workout, actually.
I'm VERY happy with this workout. I am feeling confident about next Saturday's 50K, but this gives me another boost going in. Now if my stomach will just settle down...it's actually feeling OK right now so maybe I can avoid the stomach flu? Maybe? Hoping so, because now would be a bad time for it.
Garmin connect data here.
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