Sometimes you have days when you just "don't have it", yesterday was definitely one of those days...

Ever since racing PowerMan Zofingen three weeks ago I have been fighting a 'semi cold', ie. I've had cold symptoms but it hasn't developed into a fully fledged cold...  It's been kinda 2 - 3 days when I've felt like crap and hence done no training, just focused on getting lots of sleep, chugging down huge amounts of Vitamin C and plenty of fluids. The back to light training to keep the body 'loose' for Lidingoloppet, only for the 'crappy' feeling to recur...

Going in to the race yesterday, Lidingoloppet 30 K XC, I'd been feeling pretty OK since Tuesday so I at least had hopes of having a decent race. 

My legs felt really light & loose when I started my warmup which is always good, but even when just jogging at a very relaxed pace my heart rate shot up to 150 BPM which is about 20 beats too high.  Could it just be the heart rate monitor that was going nuts?!???

Unfortunately it wasn't...  Just 2 K into the race I felt really winded and had a heart rate of 188 BPM even though I was just running at a 38 min 10 K pace. This was still ca 20 BPM higher than normal...

I kept plugging hoping that I would settle into a normal pulse rate and feel better. Sadly it was not to be...  I came through the 5k mark at ~ 19min 15sec which was still well on pace for  a sub 2 hr finish.  BUT I just felt worse & worse and by now I was starting to get light headed and dizzy....   Arrrggghhhhhhhhh.... Sooo  frustrating.

Time to face the facts. I still have some kind of "bug in the system" and there's no point in trying to push the limit when you're not feeling well. Hence I decided to call it a day when we came through the 8 km mark where we passed an area with spectators where Dragana was standing.  Just as she screamed "c'mon Peter!!!!" I stopped.  Sorry babe.....

I immediately started to excuse myself for dragging her along to the race when I didn't finish, but with a few minutes of perspective and still with a sky high heart rate it was evident that a DNF today was the right call.

So that's that.  The end of the racing season.  Time for some recovery.

I just realized yesterday that I have not had more than 5 consecutive days off from training since February 2007 so now I will grant myself a full week with no training!  The focus in the coming week will be relaxing with Dragana, eating what I want whenever I want, focus on unhealthy food like Pizza & Kebab's etc...  Then there's Red Wine, there will be lots of that too!!!

Once the "sloppy relax week" is over time to refocus and start building for next year, ease back into training in preparation for the first goal of 2009. More on that goal soon....

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