Normal Service Starting to Resume...

So finally, my resting heart rate returned to normal yesterday. I'm still a bit nasally bunged up but otherwise heading back to normal. I wasn't that unwell with COVID. Headache, a bit achy and the mandatory chesty cough but I wasn't going to be silly about it. Better to ride out the storm and come back fighting...

I ran a very gentle 5k on the treadmill yesterday, and my heart rate remained as low as normal - if not even a little lower! Today I headed over to the woods for a tentative first proper run. I took it easy, pacing a slower than normal. Definitely not 100% yet, but it won't be too many days before I am and then I can gauge the fitness hit I took this last week.

A take away from the week, is just how well my Garmin watch predicted the illness - if I'd bother to check it. Its data for stress levels, body battery and resting heart rate perfectly mirrored my bodies battle with the virus - and if I'd been paying attention last Saturday/Sunday I'd have known my immune system was under attack. How those magical algorithms do their thing is beyond me, but do their thing they do. It knew before me that my immune system was under attack.. Must pay closer attention in the future.

Well, I Might Not Be Doing the K Reps this Week After All...

And this explains my elevated resting heart rate since since Saturday despite not actually feeling unwell - until today. And I honestly don't feel too bad. Bit of a headache, bit of a cough and slightly achy. But overall, not too bad and despite the elevated resting heart rate, I almost took a hill segment PB on Zwift yesterday, and I wasn't going eyeballs out. I was even contemplating a crack at the Hope Wood East Side climb segment this evening as I felt so strong but not now. The curse of Covid has finally struck. After avoiding for almost four years (at least that I know of). Normal service will resume once the resting heart rate comes back down.

I have a feeling I am going to go stir crazy waiting to get back running not to mention the physiological feeling that my fitness will ooze away.

Missed a Week

 ... on the blog but not the running. It's been a mix of bike sessions, treadmill sessions and some 9/10k time trial-esque real world runs. I need to hit some kilometre reps this week as it's been over three weeks since my last set, but other than that it's all good on the running front.

Definitely Gloves Weather

It took slightly longer than expected to get over my unexpectedly knackered legs from last Saturday's Blorenge marshalling - or more accurately the run-jog decent back down. The first part of the week was recovery, followed by a short interval session on the treadmill Thursday.

That led to yesterday's crack at a fast time on the local Longhope-Blaisdon loop, 8½km. I was rewarded with over three minutes off my time from August and only two minutes back from my best (which was 2016 and probably not my absolute best but if it's not on Strava it doesn't exist). I don't think it will be too long before that mark is surpassed.

Today? Well, yesterday was cold but today was colder. Too cold for a pu... - southern softie - like me, so I bottled it and ran a recovery 10k on the treadmill instead.