Canada West Indoor Meet

Friday, February 27, 2009

Yesterday the Vikes team flew into the coldest place in Canada, I swear! Regina had a high of -35C that day. Our team from the island in the Pacific ocean were in shock as we walked out on the frozen tundra  (which was the airport parking lot) to the rental vans.  I have decided I am not a true Canadian. Just 10 minutes of standing in the cold, shivering while waiting for the vans had me feeling grumpy and cursing like a truck-driver. I can’t believe I am the same person that lived for years in Northern-Ontario.

We drove over to the indoor track shortly after we arrived to do an easy warm-up and some strides. I felt fine during the run but shortly afterwards felt tired so I told Brent I would have to skip the dinner with the girls team and needed to hang low in my room for a few hours. One of the Vikes’ parents live very close to the track and offered to make the girls team a pre-race dinner at their home which was incredibly sweet of them. Feelings of guilt overtook my  better judgement and  I sucked it up and went over and enjoyed an wonderful home-cooked meal of roast beef, mashed potatoes, spaghetti squash and Saskatoon Berry crumble with ice cream.

I had a decent sleep last night although my nose was  stuffed and yet really dr when I woke up. Nothing like a hot and stuffy hotel room to make you feel like you have swallowed a cupful of saw dust and shoved cotton balls as far as you can up your nose. After a lazy morning listening (an humming along) to music I need to learn (sorry to my roomies!!) we got to the track in time to watch some of the middle-distance girls run before we had to do our warm-up.

My warm-up felt normal, strides felt good…nothing out of the ordinary. I was feeling confident that I could hold a good pace today and was looking forward to having Paula to gage a clippy pace off of since I knew she would be up for a good battle. I decided to wear flats again today since I have to run NACAC next weekend and didn’t want to be dealing with sore calves. The race started exactly as I predicted with Paula pulling up a lead right off the top with me about 3″ behind. The track was 200m so I got my 400m split and was pretty well on pace in 75″…problem was it felt like I had just run 68…uh, oh. I told myself not to change anything, that maybe I would find that relaxed feeling in another lap or so. I kept my focus on Paula just a few seconds ahead and was still feeling confident that I would be able to close in at the right time further into the race. Unfortunately, 1km into it  and I was feeling very flat. I came so very close to pulling off several times but still had a glimmer of hope that I would feel better if I just hung in there. So, I hung in there…out of sheer will-power. I was running slower on every lap but my stubborn personality willed every step and I finished. I came in 5th in 10:13…that would be 34″ slower than in Seattle! haha! It wasn’t funny when I finished to be honest since I couldn’t believe I had run so poorly but once I caught my breath (it felt like I had run 9:05!) and got a few hugs from the girls on the team who had also run I just laughed and shrugged my shoulders….what can you do?! One of my team mates Deirdre who caught me at the line ran a PB today which was exciting…yay D!!!!

Kerry who also got sick last week had a very similar race finnished her last km in a stunning 3:47…haha! I didn’t dare ask what my last km was in.

Anyway, the other girls had good races and I was relieved to find out that our men’s 4 x 800m team broke the meet record and grabbed the top three spots as individuals in the 1500m as well. I should have gone to watch the other events later that night after dinner but I was exhausted afterwards and ignored the feeling of guilt this time and stayed in my room and rested.

I woke up the next morning with no voice. Julia and Laura who I was sharing the room with thought it was pretty funny hearing me try to croak out a good morning! Thanksfully, my voice gradually came back…just needed to clear the gobs of flem that was sitting on my vocal chords…sorry for the graphic details!!

I had asked Brent to fly me home the day after I raced even though the team was staying on for one more day of racing and the banquet and he was able to get me on an earlier flight. I have a lot of travelling to do in the next few weeks so I thought an extra day home in my own bed would be a good thing. Kerry managed to get on the same flight, bailing on running the 1500m which was a wise move.

I spoke with Coach Jon the next day as our group was running on the trails at Thetis lake. He agreed that there was something wrong with me on Friday and it was likely from having been sick. He has revised my training schedule again to provide me with more recovery saying that it’s more important than training this week and I completely agreed. I haven’t had much experience with training while sick since I have been training hard. I have been very lucky. So I look at this as a valuable learning experience, although I suppose every flu-bug or cold one gets affects one differently. I felt good on the run today but was pretty tired in the afternoon so I gave myself some lie-down time in the afternoon. I am pretty sure I will perk up by the end of the week. We leave on Thursday for the NACAC Cross Country Championships in Orlando, Florida.