3 Weeks Out
Our final week in France was spent in Chamonix. Our training volume was purposely reduced after a few weeks of really going for it, and it was nice to see my HR finally come down (even though we were only a few hundred metres lower). I performed a session on the track which was, if I recall correctly, 4 x (4 x 300m off 90 sec). My pace for the reps was between 2:50-2:59. I made the mistake of programming the workout on my watch, but because it believes the track is 400m, it told me I was running Kipchoge pace… and I believed it. Stupid.
The rest of the week was spent doing all the well earned recovery things. We ate Ribs, drank good coffee, demolished cinnamon buns and Cham Ice 3 Boule cups. Runs were super relaxed. We congratulated ourselves on making the decision to come to the Alps before heading home and looked forward to returning to the Uk, fitter than ever.
The one thing we hadn’t considered, post UTMB, was that Covid would be hanging like a dark cloud over Chamonix.
On the day before we left to catch our shuttle home, we woke up next a beautiful turquoise lake and went for our final run. A chilled, flat 10k run at 5 minutes per k.
I felt like I was going to pass out.
That night the fever started and I suspected that we might be in trouble. For all those who think that Covid is just a mild cold, I’m sure (for some) it is. Annoyingly for us, it’s been completely debilitating.
We took a full week off, dealing with symptoms that seemed to change on an almost daily basis. I had a fever for 5 nights straight. Holly had headaches and painful joints. Finally, I tested negative on the Friday, making the decision to run 3 miles the next day, since I was feeling much better. As I stood setting my watch to ‘Run’, my HR flashed up at 110bpm. Ok, that’s not ideal. I decided to walk up the incline at the end of our road and start running when it flattened out. A slow walk pushed me to 124bpm. A week earlier I had run 10k at an avg of 121bpm. Was it sensible to start running at this point? Based on how I felt, I decided to give it a go. Honestly, I felt nearly 100% recovered, but my HR disagreed.
Since then we have continued to train, both feeling well enough to do so. Annoyingly, Holly has struggled to produce any power. She repeated a workout a couple of days ago that she had hit on the track in Font (at 1800m). Her pace then was 5:20 per mile. This time she couldn’t push past 6:30 per mile.
It’s now the following Friday. I’m currently set to complete 70 miles this week. I’ve had 2 sessions. 6x1 mile at MRP and 10x1k at 10k pace. Both felt great. Both times my HR skyrocketed.
So what do we do?
After chatting to Alan, we made the decision to do Amsterdam in 3 weeks. Holly will pace me to halfway and we’ll shoot for a (hopefully) comfortable 90 minutes. At that point we decide. Do we go for it or do we call it quits. If we call it quits, it means that I can return to training fairly quickly in order to prepare for… Pisa Marathon on December 15th! This will be exactly 8 weeks post-Amsterdam. Plenty of time to build to a Sub 2:50 before the year is out!
Fingers crossed for heart rates to come down over the next 2 weeks and for Hollys oomph to return.
It ain’t over til it’s over.