Thursday morning session - DNF

How soon is too soon? After being rendered bed ridden the past two days with a nasty stomach bug, I ambitiously (or stupiditly) decided to 'ease' back into running this morning with some one mile repeats along Manly Beach front with the Manly boys and girls. The warm-up run over Queenscliff headland from South Curl Curl sounded the first sirens, with my legs protesting every step of the climb. Luckily I arrived at our designated meeting point 10 minutes prior to kick-off - giving myself a 'much-deserved' recovery break. We started our first rep running down towards Manly, and I immediately got onto the back of Tom and hung on all the way down. I looked at my watch periodically throughout the effort, which continued to read a stubborn 3:12 min/km pace. Speed-wise, that felt about right, however effort-wise I was working much harder. That burning sensation that you get in your lungs that is generally reserved until the last few km's of a 10km race was present from about 600m in, and the legs turned to lead not long after. We completed the mile, and I was spent. After a 2 minute break, we set off for the second rep, but I lasted about 500m before deciding to call it quits. As most runners and endurance athletes know, this is never an easy decision - one where you have two voices in your head; one rationale and objective voice telling you the honest truth, the other screaming at you to 'harden up' and 'run it out.' Today, the former won the battle. Perhaps I was too ambitious today, after getting 'itchy feet' following 2 days of enforced rest. I will attempt an easy 40-50 minute run tomorrow (definitely no speed work), and hope to return to Centennial Park on Saturday morning with Sean Williams' squad for a 10-12 km threshold run. But as always, I will start listening to my body more and more.