So yes, it's Saturday night and I'm sitting home updating my blog. That is pretty sorry situation, but not as sorry as my run this afternoon: 13 miles, half of it walked, copious amounts of phlegm and snot left along the way.
Ten days ago I had a vicious sore throat that I was determined to beat back with Ricola cough drops, Emergen-C fizzy drink stuff, gallons of water and popsicles. (I like popsicles when I'm sick.) That was a week and two boxes of Puffs Plus ago, not to mention hours upon hours of sick time spent on my couch.
Two days into it, I did a long run - 17 miles - despite the runny nose and sore throat. I was waaaay fatigued and walked more than is respectable but I got the miles in that's what counted. The days that followed left me questioning whether that was such a good idea: waking with endless volumes of snot blowing from my nose, headaches, sore throat, raspy voice. It was enough to make me wonder: with so few weekends left for quality long runs before the the taper, would I have been better off resting through the beginning of a cold and potentially not making it worse; or doing the long run because there are no spare weekends to put if off?
And let the bronchitis-emphyzema-hacking cough that has taken up residence in my lungs be the proof: perhaps I shouldn't have run last weekend. It's the kind of cough that employs a demented ability to surprise: sometimes it's dry and chaffs my throat, sometimes it leaves me choking on sloppy chunks of phelgm; sometimes it disappears for hours, then it rears back with such viciousness that my abs are as sore as my bronchial tubes.
At 8:30 this morning I called Nadine (who helpfully reported, "Ew. You don't sound good") to say that I did want to try running, and I was hopeful in guessing that the afternoon might be the optimal time for my lung capacity. We slogged through 13 miles on the bike path in Burlington, with generous walk breaks whilst I tried to get all the coughing out in one long spell, having saved it up for however long we'd just run. Along the way we cataloged our health complaints: in addition to the vile infection that's taken over over my respiratory tract, I've got a spot of tendonitis in my right knee, off and on low back pain, bursitis in my right hip and apparently a bad kidney (as I determined around 3:30 this morning when I woke up with a mysterious localized pain in my back) . Excellent! I think I need serious rest, a massive infusion of nutrition and some good luck too. ("Luck is for the ill-prepared" - yep, that sound about right....)
Chicago marathon is one month away. Next weekend I'm going to run 20 quality miles and hope that it goes well enough to give me momentum to get to the start line and the finish line.
