First track workout of the season - not a good start

You know, there are a lot of times when I dread a workout and I am positive that it is not going to go well. Then I just suck it up, put on my workout clothes and go out and do it and it turns out to be ok. Today was not one of those occasions. I was definitely convinced before going out that my track workout wasn't going to go well, and I was definitely right.

I closed out my rest week with a nice day off on Sunday, hanging out at my parents house on Mother's Day and enjoying their company as well as my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew. It was nice to sleep in and come downstairs to find almost everyone was already awake, rather than slipping out the door at sunrise, only to return to everyone just getting up and eating waffles. I had to skip the waffles, but at least I got to lie around in my pajamas all morning... and as I later realized, well into the afternoon. I didn't get dressed until like 3:30 when I decided it was time to drive home.

So I made the most of my rest week, but somehow managed to come down with a cold. I've felt this stupid cold coming on probably since the day I went to St. Croix. It was one of those things I could feel in my throat, but it never really seemed to materialize into anything and I was hopeful it would just go away. As the week wore on, I started coughing and my nose started running. Still it more or less only felt like about 25% of a cold, not really enough to worry about. I briefly thought that maybe it was allergies, something I've never really experienced, but these past couple of days I think I've decided I have an actual cold. I have been waking up with that dizzy feeling where your head sort of spins when you lift it off the pillow. It doesn't make getting up in the morning all that appealing. Yesterday was another easy day of workouts: just an easy swim, so no real opportunity to see how I'd hold up. Today was the real test.

After sleeping way more than usual - and even the usual is plenty - I went out to do my bike workout. I didn't feel great, and my mouth was incredibly dry from all of that mouth-breathing, but it wasn't too bad, either. Then came the waiting for the track workout. I haven't done one of these since I think last June or July, and I am terrible at trying to run fast. Seriously, there is very little speed variation for me between race distances. This is good for the long stuff, not for the short stuff. I felt tired, because that's just how I've been feeling lately, even though there is no real reason to since I haven't been training hard and I've been getting plenty of sleep. The other fun thing that started happening today - and I'll warn you that this involves bodily fluids, but if you're a triathlete, and if you're reading this you probably are, then you are used to this kind of talk - is that whenever I blew my nose, which was very, very often, it was just as much blood as it was plegm. I've never had a bloody nose in my life, but this was bordering. Anyway, off I went.

I started with a nice warm-up run. Ok, nice is not a good word. It was a beautiful afternoon and I should've been enjoying it, but it just felt hard. My heart rate shot up and I knew I was running slow. Ok, on to the track. I had to do 10x400, which is simple enough. My coach had given me a pace to hit. That right away made me nervous because I think I've only ever run 1 single 400 in the pace he wanted me to hit for 10 of them. Granted, I do not have an extensive history of track workouts, but still. So I set off for #1. Gee, I was only about 17 seconds slow. Ouch. Maybe I just needed to shake out the cobwebs. #2 was 3 seconds better. Ok, maybe this will just keep getting better. #3 was another second better, and #4 was 3 more seconds better than #3, but it came at the expense of feeling dizzy and kind of wanting to throw up. That kind of feeling is much more acceptable if you are actually running fast, or maybe on the last repeat, but I wasn't even halfway finished. I took a total rest after that interval and tried to clear my sinuses. That just resulted in somehow managing to get blood on my shirt. I wasn't wiping my nose with the shirt, it just kind of splattered on there somehow.

Each repeat just felt worse and worse. I stayed in the same general time range, but never got any faster, just kept feeling sicker and blowing some nice, bloody snot rockets between repeats. As I made it about halfway through #8, the bitterness of defeat overwhelmed me and I decided to call it quits. Let me assure you, I almost never don't finish a workout, especially one I'm already in the middle of doing. My legs weren't working anymore, my head hurt, my stomach hurt, I was likely going to be frightening people if I got any more blood on my shirt, and all of this for a pace that isn't even fast. Instead, I spent the next 20 minutes running very easy with a very high heart rate, got in my car and drove home.

I hate unsuccessful workouts, especially really important ones. Running is obviously a weak point for me - a very weak point - and I can't afford to be messing up key run workouts. But today was just a bad day, and I feel like messing up this one day has just put me a week behind. Hopefully this stupid cold will leave me alone soon. I'll tell you one thing though, tomorrow's pool workout could be interesting for anyone else in the water with me if this blood-out-the-nose thing doesn't stop before then. Not much I can do about it when I spend so much time exhaling through my nostrils. Tomorrow will be a tough swim, but then just an easy bike and run which will hopefully make me feel more like myself.

So I dreaded the workout, but eventually I laced up my shoes and drove over to the track.