Keeping bad company

It's been an interesting weekend. I was looking forward to long runs on Saturday & Sunday but when I tested my Heart Rate Variance (HRV) on Saturday it was a red light meaning rest, no training. I was really disappointed however I ignored it once before and ended up unable to train for a week so this time I rested.  I did feel tired during the day but don't know if this was because of the red reading playing on my mind but I was hoping that the rest would allow me to run on Sunday.
This morning I got a green light so met up with the ultra runners. The group has people doing different mileage with people finishing at 13 miles and others going on.  The problem that causes is the pace for the first 13 miles is higher than it would be for the 19.2 that three of us ended up doing.  I ran the last with gritted teeth as I struggled to keep up with the experienced ultra runners Rosie Bell and Craig Hamilton but whenever it came to a hill it was like cutting a piece of string and I was going backwards.  It was ugly running, any form I had was gone and this was all about getting the chimp in my head to shut the f@@k up. Runs like this hurt but running 53 miles isn't going to be without pain so you need runs where you have to dig deep. Today was one of those.
So I jumped in a hot bath when I got home, had I been a real man it would have been an ice bath. I pulled on my compression clothes to help speed up my recovery, got a recovery drink and started stuffing my face with protein. I'm feeling better already but tomorrow will definitely be a rest day. I wonder what my HRV will be? Green, Amber or Red. Time will tell but the bad company I am keeping is certainly pushing my boundaries! As someone once said, if it was easy everybody would do it!