A disappointing work-out, a weird work-out and a lesson learned

Disappointing work-out: after doing a triumphant 5 X 1 km work-out in 3:45 last week-end and feeling cocky about breaking 19:00 in next week's 5 km, I had a really disappointing work-out this week-end. I was going to do 4 X 1200m at 5 km pace but it fell apart after the first two, both of which were slower than target pace of 4:30: 4:33, 4:37... I knew I would not be able to finish a 3rd anywhere near my target pace. I felt very flat after little sleep the night before and extremely wheezy from whatever tree was flowering around the track. I decided to run a km in whatever time I could manage: 4:02. ouch. That brought the total to 3.4 km of intervals. In the old days, I would have packed it in, jogged 30-40 minute easy, called it a day with the thought of doing the work-out a few days later once the pollen had cleared the air. In my current life, when a window of opportunity opens to do a work-out outside, the work-out is done. No hesitations and no matter how slowly I have to run it. So, I called upon my oxygen deprived brain to puzzle out what would be the best thing to do with my rapidly dwindling remaining time. I figured I could run a tempo-ish pace without collapsing in an asthmatic heap so I set out to run 2 km. I managed to pull off 4:16, 4:01 - good for 8:17 total.

Lesson learned: I will carry this into my race next week. now I know that if the chips are down and I am feeling terrible, I can still run sub-4:10 kms so if the trees do not cooperate next week-end or Squeaker and La Cocotte do not permit pre-race sleep, I can still go out and bag a sub-21:00. And would I rather run a sub-21:00 than not run this race? Why yes, yes I would.

Weird Work-out: was today. It wasn't a work-out, just a treadmill run. 9 miles at 8 min/mile. At 7.5 miles I suddenly started sweating profusely. Granted I was sweating before but this was a marked change, like when you go from being able to drive with your windshield wipers on intermittent to having to pull over to the side of the road because buckets of rain are seemingly being thrown at your windshield. I suddenly got extremely hot, sweating bullets and shaky. I jumped off the treadmill and ran to get an orange thinking I needed sugar. My hands were shaking so badly I couldn't peel it. I actually bit into it, through the peel. It was like I was possessed... I HAD to get sugar into my body. I have never felt anything like it. I can't really explain it. I have been eating well (though trying to lose the rest of my pregnancy weight so maybe slightly fewer calories but honestly not excessively fewer). I had a large breakfast beforehand, drank lots, I am only running 50-65 km per week far less than when I was in my third trimester!! Well heck, I blame everything else on hormones, must have been those pesky hormones. I do remember from my last pregnancy though the feeling of constantly being on the edge while exclusively breastfeeding i.e. going from being slightly hungry to ravenous in the course of 20 minutes. Anyway, weird, not going to worry about it unless it happens again.
And yes, I did finish the last 1.5 miles once I got some sugar and liquid into me.