October Training Recap: All Over the Place

I feel like the last year of training log recaps can all be written as: “all over the place.” They are. Running in the previous four years has not gone well, but over the last year has gone especially not well. Well is relative, I’m able to run, but I am running my slowest times.

In October, I finally decided to get seen by a doctor. It’s been five months since I had the flu, and I don’t feel the same. Running and breathing feels hard. Not in the regular: “running at threshold pace is hard,” but in a sense, something is clogging my lungs. While my chest x-ray came out clean, I recently got a blood test, and I’m excited to see what comes out—hopefully, something. I hope I am “just anemic” since that is a reasonably straightforward process to fix once diagnosed. Anyway, the results of that should come any day now.

If you’re new, in early May, I got the flu. I had 6 COVID tests, including at the doctor, were all negative. But I haven’t felt the same since. Is it long COVID? Who knows. The doctors don’t yet. Instead of continuing to say: I’m just getting over the flu, I finally decided to get seen by the doctor. So now I’m waiting on immediate results like blood test results. I was telling a good friend, that I will be sad if my blood results are “fine” because then what happens?

Running Quick Facts:

Total Mileage: 295

Range of Paces: 6:42-42:XX-untimed

Shortest Run: 2 miles

Longest Run: 18.5 miles

Races:

RnR San Jose (1:39.30)

Airshow 5k (2.9 miles 6:48 pace)

Spacerock Trail Half Marathon (2:52)

Wicked 10k (46:04)

Thoughts:

My best race was also the cheapest (free) and the shortest. Truthfully, the Airshow 5k was the only “good race” I had in time. Although, I had a decent race for the circumstances at the Wicked 10k. The day before, I contracted the stomach bug and I thought “there is no way I’m running”, but it only lasted 24 hours and I was able to run and race fairly well the next day.

The others were fine, I started and finished healthy, but they weren’t great. RnR San Jose especially, led me to go to the doctor finally. I could not breathe well during the race and had to stop and walk three times to keep my heart rate down. Not in an “I ran too fast” way, but more in a something is wrong way. So I finally started my journey to the doctor.

Thankfully, just a week later, I ran the Airshow 5k faster and felt okay. Regarding Spacerock Trail Half Marathon, I had a chaotic week prior and had also given blood the day before. Many people give blood well, but I’m not one of them. So my goal was to start and finish healthy…which I did. It was a trail race and anytime I start and finish hose healthy, it’s a good day.

Training has gone as best I can. I took it daily and didn’t do many workouts in October. Truthfully I was more or less exhausted from work and balancing my doctors’ appointments, the cats’ doctors appointments. The cats have also had a lot going on, and it’s a 50-minute drive to the vet, so it’s been exhausting to do after work. (They both have “cat gingivitis” and need surgery). This sounds like a lame excuse, but it’s just an additional stress.

Anyway, my goal for November is to keep keeping on. I don’t plan to train for anything until I feel good again actively. Which means first, I need to figure out what is wrong. Then fix it. It will likely be. It takes a few months until that all comes together (at minimum). But for now, I’ll continue running and training. It stinks to be running my slowest times ever, and since I even started running, I still enjoy it. It’s just different right now.