Solo this morning and feeling recovered from the race (I was recovered by the time I got home Saturday which is a bad sign that I did not give much), I decided to push a little to see how I felt. I started off up Amphitheater fairly conservative, but two minutes in I fully breathed a fly straight into my lungs. This sent me into fits of gagging, hacking and coughing, which I felt the residual effects of the entire run up. I hit the 1st jct. in 6:45, not great, but still within range of putting in a decent time. I upped the effort a bit, but really just did not have as much as I had hoped. My legs felt great and I plugged along, going at the low side of hard, but my cardio system was just not in sync and I felt as though I was fighting the hill a bit. My chest has still been bugging me more than I have wanted to admit since slamming it on my knee two weeks ago and I was mentally acknowledging some awkwardness this morning while trying to go a little harder than I have since it happened. It does not actually hurt so much while running (even though it still hurts if I lay on my stomach in bed), but I think the combination of it somewhat limiting my breathing (it still hurts a bit taking in a full breath) and just the overall feeling of being a bit more fragile than usual is having a bit of an affect both mentally and physically.
I tagged the top in a somewhat disappointing 35:46 (avg HR 165) which seemed slow to me given my overall perceived effort. I am looking forward to Bike to Work Day tomorrow and then hopefully a slew of 14ers over the weekend to usher in my 39th year.
