Another week of cross country, with a 2 race weekend scheduled of the 4k National Relays at Cumbernauld followed by the Forth Road Bridge 10k on Sunday. At least that was the plan.

The week

Tuesday saw a good training session on the track at Meadowbank. 200s and 600s. Unfortunately on Wednesday night I felt terrible, not just physically but more mentally, and 12k after work felt like a very long way. With a bit of a sore foot too I decided to skip Thursday training to keep fresh for the weekend’s races.

Cumbernauld

On Saturday was the Scottish National 4k Cross Country relays. I was the 3rd leg of 4 for the EAC B-team, and this week there was some proper cross-country weather on order. Windy, had been raining and would come back on on occasion, and not overly warm.

So when I had to I dropped off my spare clothing in the club tent and headed to the start. The changeover happened and I struggled to get up much of a speed on the flat, as someone comes flying past me. In short order comes a short sharp uphill and I immediately get the feeling there’s nothing in my legs, no power. I’m just not feeling it.

And so it goes as I move along the course: there are people to chase, and people on my tail, I’m making up some ground on the downs and at least feeling like I have a chance on the flats, particularly later on. As for the uphills, short and sharp or long and drawn out into the wind… as I say there’s nothing in my legs.

Forth Bridge 10k

As for the Forth Bridge 10k - a great race which I’ve done before - that was cancelled they day before due to high winds making it unsafe. Quite right too, and unfortunate; saying that I’m not sure I was in a shape to race.

In fact I was completely wiped out by the mere 4k of racing around a park. I crashed on Saturday afternoon, was really mentally “not there”. And feeling the effects on Sunday, I didn’t get out for a run in the morning. In fact looking outside at the wind blowing past, I didn’t get out for a run all day, until the evening when it was dark, wet and windy - somehow that was easier to motivate getting out in the elements (for a slow meandering 20k).

Looking Back

Not sure what happened. Was I wrong to skip a session? Maybe the race wasn’t too bad and I just pushed so hard as to take it out of myself. Or maybe I had some underlying thing going on. Good job I’d taken a couple of days off work Mon/Tues for R&R.