Two weeks ago I went up Mt Wilson in a cold rain, feeling a bit run down with a slight cold and a dry cough. I turned around about 7 miles in as I was chilled and not feeling great. I started into the following week with a couple of walks feeling run down, and by midweek I had a wet cough and a case of bronchitis. Over the following weekend I was laid out on a lazy-boy chair, on antibiotics and I put in zero miles.
By late last week the antibiotics had cleared up the goop in my chest and I was feeling better so I put in a couple long walks. This Saturday I did the Mt Wilson 20 mile work out- walk up/run down, 2:44up/4:15 total. Sunday I rested as I was sore! This morning I did the Wilson 20 again, 2:43 up, 4:10 total.
One good thing about the bronchitis is that it gave me a solid rest week. During the rest I did heel drop exercises religiously and a glute circuit every couple of days. The glute circuit consists of 1-legged glute bridges, slow-motion stair step ups - these are like a slow-motion sprint start with the forward leg placed up three steps....sounds silly, but believe me, try a set of 20 - go up over 3 seconds and then down also over 3 seconds...its a great hip/glute/hamstring work out plus it exercises proprioception. I felt solid today albeit a bit out of shape.
Reviewing the mileage its been three weeks since I had a solid longish workout and I definiately lost a lot of fitness. So much for the three week taper. I have felt that I've over tapered for the last two AC100s, the experience these last few weeks seems to corroborate this.
Pete Sercel's ultrarunning training blog --my experience with running injury prevention and recovery, and training for the Angeles Crest 100.
