From Diary of a Rubbish Marathon Runner I felt fully recovered on Thursday. I did not have any headache or other signs of flu, and I definitely did not have a fever. I was well enough to be back in the office, and I managed to cycle home (though I got soaking wet when it started raining heavily on the way home). But I still had a cough, and with a rather heavy heart I stayed in bed on Friday morning. The feelings of frustration were somewhat alleviated by listening to the storm outside (“wind speeds between gale force and heavy gale force”), but that had subsided by the morning.
My patience was wearing a bit thin by then, and there was no stopping me on Saturday morning, especially as the sky was clear and it promised to be a nice day. I wore two layers on top, and even though I originally thought of this as being overly cautious it turned out to be a good move because it was freezing cold outside, with frost on the ground until well after I had come back home. I ran a loop towards Cromane which turned out to be a little bit further than I thought, and the quads were starting to get surprisingly heavy towards the end. Apparently four days off are enough to lose some fitness. I still got home in good shape, and will jump more or less straight back at the schedule, but will cut down Monday’s long run by a few miles.
A few weeks ago, after reading this article, Niamh took the twins to Cork for an assessment by the Centre for Talented Youth of Ireland. I didn’t realise this, but the threshold they apply is extremely high. The child has to be better than 95% of its age groups students in either verbal or abstract ability to qualify. And guess what? They both passed! We are now confirmed parents of two little Einsteins (Zweisteins?), though the two of them seem to just shrug it off. Which is great, I’d much rather have happy kids with normal interests than a pair of sociopathic recluses. Anyway, we’ll have to take turns in spring to drive them to Cork for some extra classes. I know they will love those; the only fly in the ointment is that none of these days are coinciding with a road race in Cork. You can’t have everything I guess.
5 Dec
0
6 Dec
10.5 miles, 1:24:57, 8:06 pace, HR 148
