The 3 A's (Week 5 - 26 to go)

Running up Glen Rosa during storm Abigail

The weekend went from bad to worse; Bowser pulled a Houdini act and hitched a ride to the vets in a police car, which was promptly followed by his vomiting the scavenged (presumed) road kill and then I was exposed to one of my major allergens, I won’t go into the ins and outs of dealing with this, suffice to say I felt quite smug at how well I’d coped both physically & emotionally.

Sunday dawned and I was keen to get out for the planned trail run with the group.  All started well, with a few of the runners asking where my blog was - I’d forgotten to post the latest instalment on the running groups facebook page - and the usual warm up followed.  The planned route was a short steady up, long down and then back up the big hill – a route I've done many times and didn't faze me at all.  And off we all set feeling very relaxed.  So bang right out of the blue within the first 5 minutes my heart rate raced, breathing became erratic and my body went into panic mode. 

This is a significant step up from anxiety, you know the sort, pre-race nerves that make you dash to the loo 50 times, jiggle up and down, talk a lot, increase the heart rate and generally get the adrenaline going.  It’s not even the next stage of hyperventilation.  This was the racing heart, dizziness, hot, nausea, ragged breathing and trembling type of attack – allergy or panic the symptoms are very similar.  And to be honest it’s quite scary.  I'm generally quite a strong character and kept telling myself to calm down, slow my breathing (it was like another person on my shoulder saying this).  Stopping to remove layers (I know from previous experience the best thing for me is to get cold) I gradually calmed down, the days run was over for me.  The group by this time was quite a way ahead and I couldn't turn round without letting someone know so I slowly continued down the hill  knowing that Laura (our fab trainer) would do one of her usual loops back through all the runners.  I was still very shaky so she walked me back up the hill and we chatted about the possible causes (likely to be a combination of factors mainly allergies) and what to do if it happens again – especially if I'm out on my own.

Home and dry it left me pretty wiped out for the rest of the day and then I found I was surprisingly anxious about Tuesdays session – Should I have a longer rest? Would it happen again? Was it the running? Could I carry on with the challenge?  But all went well although I was quite kind to myself and didn't push it too hard until the second half of the session and felt really pleased to actually do the whole thing without collapsing again!

Back on track, Abigail arrived to upset my plan of a long run on Thursday afternoon.  Trying to find off road long runs without trees is a challenge in itself, so I settled on a short run up Glen Rosa, nice and gentle  as I knew the wind and rain would make it hard enough (still being kind to myself). Watson loves the Glen – he always manages to find something incredibly smelly to roll in and today was no exception, but at least he didn't set off after the large stag that crossed our path.

Storm Abigail persisted throughout Friday, bringing strong winds, lashing rain and hail and a bit of thunder, so I just pounded the pavement for a measly 3.5 k.

And the 3 A’s – Allergy, Anxiety and Abigail.

Weeks activity 7^th – 13th  November:

Saturday – No training

Sunday –  An allergic 3.54km – run abandoned.

Monday – No training

Tuesday – Anxious Coaching session, actually clocked up 6.77km!

Wednesday – No training

Thursday – Running against Abigail, 4.5k, 76m height gain.

Friday -  Abigail persists and brought along Hail, a measly 3.49km on the road.

(Goatfell Race 15.5km / 870m)