Well, how was that for a day? Sheesh. I woke up to it raining like crazy and a huge headache. The kind of headache that usually means there's some bones in my neck that are out of alignment. I did everything I could to loosen stuff up; rolling, mobility drills, everything. But I couldn't get anything to crack. I knew I'd raced well in the past with my neck being out, so I wasn't totally freaked out, especially since my leg length was even. Again, I was doing everything I could to make sure my body was functioning. I've never gone a month with three races and so much travel without seeing a chiropractor, so I was hoping my body would hold up. Especially with a 50K in there. The only reason I'm able to move at all is because Dave has been so awesome about working on me and me making sure I stretched and did tons of mobility drills.
As we watched the weather forecast for the day it initially said an 80% of thunderstorms during the race. The race started at 6:30 PM so there was plenty of time for things to change, which they did. Later the forecast said no rain! Hazzah!
My warm up went okay, I felt okay, not great but not horrible. My head was still killing me though. But I figured I could race through head pain. I can race 50Ks after all :) That equals full body pain!
Right before we were supposed to start it poured rain and there was thunder and lightening! It was nuts. Everyone dashed for cover and tried to stay dry. A very bitterly cold wind blew in and all the women were standing there shivering. But luckily the "storm" passed over very quickly.
The race went off and I knew I'd be helping bring up the end, which I did. But I just felt off. I hit my first K around 5:18, not at all what I was hoping for or expecting. I thought maybe it was from standing in the cold and the next lap would warm me up. Alas, it did not. And with a third K even slower and my head killing me and starting to feel like I was going to throw up I decided to call it a day. I really didn't need to race a 20K in 1:50 or so.
So talk about disappointing. I was really hoping to race a strong race. I think I'm recovered from Rome, I don't think that was the problem. After the decently fast 5K in Belgium and my workouts after that going well I don't think I can say that my legs held me back. I'm not positive but I think it's because I really need to see a chiropractor. I think I can still RW at a medium pace, around 5:30 per K or so, but faster may be a struggle.
My thoughts after the race traveled all over the place. Obviously I'm disappointed, but my brain reminded me of something... Rome was my race. Rome was my highlight. Dave and I had this trip planned before I was allowed to race in Rome. So it was never the plan to do all four of these races. Initially when I finished the 50K I thought I might not race any others at all, but sometimes I like to think I'm supergirl and can do anything/everything. Most of the time I can do quite a bit. But Rome was super stressful, and I did a lot of traveling from place to place. A lot. which throws me out. So while I was really hopeful that I could race well, I really should've stuck with my initial plan of not worrying about the later races, and just have fun. Don't get me wrong, I did have fun! It was great seeing everyone! And meeting a bunch of wonderful new people. But of course I always want more.
Now we have just a few days left. We spend one more day in La Coruna tomorrow then Monday fly to Zurich and then we fly home Wednesday to arrive home basically on Thursday. It will be so nice to be home in my own bed, eating all the food I'm used to eating and see my cats and my cows and chickens. I still have to meet Fressen! Our babies are going to be so big!
It will be time to refocus, start on some new plans and adventures. For now I will look forward and just focus on training :)
No comments:
Post a Comment