10 - 27 Shut Down

Got slammed today. Completely shut down. I knew the quarters were going to be hard ... and I was right.

I didn't feel very good to begin with. I've been feeling pretty bad for a few days. I'm not sure if I'm finally coming down with this cold that's going around or if I'm just run down. All I think about is wanting to sleep.

Not that it would have mattered today anyway. What would have mattered was doing some quarters in my training. However, I became so concerned with my lack of speed that all I did was 100's and 200's, and a couple of 300's. This, was not a good idea.

Warming up we had a pretty good wind going. I ran some 100's to try and get my pacing down. The same effort yielded 12 second down wind and 14 second up wind 100's. This was a good enough pace, I thought.

I flew through the first 200 in probably 24, too fast. At 300 I was starting to cramp. When I hit the last straight away the wind felt like I was taking on a hurricane head on. I was slowing rapidly when I had a strange sensation. My head felt as though it was going to explode and I started to see white. In my years of running track I had never felt this. 30 meters from the finish I stopped. I think I would have passed out had I not. It felt like someone had driven a stake into the back of my skull. I probably would have made the time if I had continued but I was fearful about what was going on, and feeling the way I did I knew I wasn't going to be able to run another anyway.

After awhile the pain went away and I felt better. I ran three more, very cautious, 400's in 65, then 64, then 62. Since I was scared I went out very slow. I felt as though I jogged the first 200 then kicked in. Still, I was faster the first 200. By the end they were getting easier, not harder, but I still didn't think I could do the challenge so I left it.

I may try this again later if I'm feeling better. I'm sure if I trained for quarters, even if it's just a few workouts, I could give it a good shot. As of now, I'm using 32 mulligans for the event. Not many left but it may not matter anyhow.