Travelling and juggling

After my track session Wednesday night I flew to Newfoundland early Thursday morning for work. I was supposed to take a plane from Ottawa to Halifax where I'd remain on the plane while some passengers got off at their destination or to catch a connecting flight and others boarded for the last leg of the flight. It was supposed to be a quick turnaround before flying on to St. John's. The entire trip was scheduled to take 4 hours.

However, a major storm blew through Ottawa Wednesday and continued eastward. As a result, my flight was delayed leaving Ottawa by an hour due to conditions in Halifax. When we arrived in Halifax additional delays meant my trip took 3 hours longer than scheduled. So I essentially sat on my butt in a plane for 6-and-a-half hours!

Not a good idea after a hard track workout the day before, especially when you're 46-years-old.

When I finally got off the plane in St. John's, my hamstrings were tight and my glutes were numb. I could barely walk. As I hobbled to the luggage pick-up area, I was wondering how I was going to run the 7k Ian had planned for me that day.

Well by the time I got into my hotel (about 12 hours after I woke up) all I wanted to do was have a shower, get some food and sack-out. There was no run for me that day. Friday was a scheduled day off from running so no big deal I'd just push the 7k to that day.

Friday came and I was still sore and tight. Plus I spent all day on my feet working. So I skipped my run again. On Saturday evening I finally got my run in. The hotel fitness centre had a good selection of treadmills that could be converted to kilometres and displayed the pace in addition to speed.

So I ran 2k at a 5:10 per km pace to warm-up. The hamstrings in both my legs were still really tight and sore. The 2k warm-up didn't do anything to remedy the situation, but I pushed on, bumping the pace to 4:55 per km for 2k. The run was no fun. My legs hurt. It was almost as difficult as the last 2k of the race I ran in Georgia a few weeks earlier.

Despite the pain I pushed on telling myself this would be good training for future races when I experienced pain and/or hit the wall. I alternated mantras throughout the run - "feel strong, run fast" and "no pain, no gain". At the 4k point, I upped the pace to 4:45 and held that for 1.5k, then ran 500m at a 4:30 pace before slowing to a 5:10 pace for the last 1k.

When I reached 7k I was very happy. I got back to my room, stretched and soaked in a hot bath for 30 minutes. My legs finally felt good.

I'm in Newfoundland for three more days and have to run 8k today and 9k tomorrow, originally a rest day. Then when I return home I have 6 consecutive runs to complete. At least the plan is to be home Tuesday. There's another storm forecast for today and one for Tuesday.

Have I mentioned how much I hate winter?