Sick Days

ohhh man. I don’t know what happened, but I have been laying low the past couple of days because I have felt like crap.

Monday and Tuesday I couldn’t even get out of bed because I felt so horrible. I took sick days from work. Then yesterday, 15 minutes after I woke up and told the hubby “I feel great!” my monthly visitor came. Way to hit me when I’m down. 

So I’ve been experiencing the typical symptoms that come along with that….such a thrill.

I’m not sure I’ve ever gotten sick after a race like this. Ironically, I felt awesome the week after Goofy, except for a few sore muscles. 

But exercise since the race has been nil. Race recaps haven’t been written. I’ve just been laying low.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Christmas Decorating and lots of miles

Hey there, I hope your weekend was a good one.

I started off the weekend with an easy six-mile run. Gotta love cut back weeks. 🙂 My legs were pretty tired but I got through it.

I’m pretty sure my legs were a little tired because I HIT 100 MILES IN NOVEMBER!!! Well 101.67 to be precise, but this goes down in history as my first ever 100+ mile month! Yesss.

yay!

On Sunday my dad and I volunteered at a local half marathon and manned one of the water stops. It was a good time – I really love giving back to the community by doing this. It’s one race that I’m not sure I’ll ever do (it’s super hilly, especially in the last two miles – runners have joked that they have “seen God” during the final ascent, haha). I also had no idea what went into the whole water stop thing, and we “lucked out” and our water jugs ran out and needed to be refilled right as the big clump of 10-11 minute milers came through.  Needless to say we were filling and handing out cups SO frantically. Definitely an interesting experience. Sunday was also a rest day which was really nice.

The hubby and I also almost finished decorating the house for Christmas!! This is the first time we have had a full-sized tree since we got married two years ago.  It’s also really cool to have a house to decorate – I wrapped garland around our bannister going upstairs and light post, put a wreath on the front door, and put some garland in these cute small-ish windows we have in the living room. We’re hoping to do the outside lights next weekend. I also realized I have an over-abundance of snowmen. Very few Santas, but a million snowmen.

This morning I was back on the treadmill for 45 minutes. I seem to have caught a touch of something but I’m drinking tea and eating Riccola like it’s my job. I really don’t want to get sick right now – I have a 23 miler on the docket for this weekend! yikes. Come on immune system…

The need for speed

I’m starting to feel a little bit better.

From the time I got home from work until 9:30 last night I was curled up under a blanket watching mindless TV.  Around 9:30 I fell into a cold-medicine induced sleep and slept like a log. I woke up this morning for work pretty easily. I’m not 100% yet but  hoping I’m on the way to feeling better. I don’t think I’m going to be up for hot yoga tonight – being in a super hot room in close proximity to others just doesn’t sound appealing right now. I’m hoping I’ll be able to get in a yoga session, strength and a run by the end of the week though, we will see.

Onto something a little more exciting…

I’ve noticed that I have gotten significantly slower when training for my first four half marathons over the past year. I don’t need to start actively training for my next half marathon until the beginning-ish of March so I looked around at a plan that would help me get faster while still maintaining endurance for medium length long runs. I think I’ve settled on Hal Higdon’s Intermediate 5k plan. I really do best when I have a written down plan that I can cross of my workouts from.

I did make a few modifications to Higdon’s original plan.

• I reduced the running days to three a week. I’ve learned from past experience that four or five days of running a week is just too much.
• I added in Yoga 1x a week and Strength training with bands on the Wii 1x a week.
• In addition, my Fridays are blank right now, mostly because my previous Zumba session ended and won’t be restarting until mid January. Zumba classes may end up being on a different day of the week, causing me to have to shift my other workouts around. Until mid-January I plan on doing EA Active on the Wii, an easy run or some other sort of exercise to fill that day.

I’ve also jotted down any weekend plans I know of coming up so that it’s easier to plan long runs.

I really really loathe speed work and tempo runs, but I’m hoping incorporating it one day a week  will be doable and will help!

Enjoy your Wednesday. I’ve got 1.5 work days til 2012 left! Counting down…

Letting my body rest

Sorry I haven’t been around much.

I woke up yesterday morning with a nice sore throat. Super awesome.  I spent the day drinking fluids and sucking on Riccola hoping it would clear up, but it didn’t.

When I woke up this morning and it still hurt I knew it was time to go to the doctor. Luckily there is  walk in clinic here that accepts my insurance and charges me no co-pay. So I went there first thing at 8am this morning. The doctor did a quick strep test that came back negative and decided to put me on antibiotics anyhow.

So here I am, back at work, counting down the days until I’m off for the break (2.5 days and counting) so I can really relax.

Obviously this has put a slight kink in my workout plans for the week but I know I have to let my body rest.

So…

Planned workouts for the week
Monday – rest
Tuesday – rest
Wednesday – Heated yoga, as long as I’m feeling better
Thursday – Run for however long I feel like
Friday – Abs n Arms
Saturday – Longer run if I feel up to it
Sunday – Rest

I’ve spent the past couple days thinking about spring races and thinking about a training plan to follow before I have to get into a half training plan for my May half. Signing up for races and thinking about training is just the thing to do when you’re feeling down for being sick. At least for me it is. 🙂

I have no voice

I woke up this morning and went to say something to the hubby, and my voice sounded raspy. It was easier to whisper.

I don’t know what happened to my voice but work has definitely been interesting today. I don’t feel sick at all so there was no point in staying home, but I preface every conversation with “sorry I’m losing my voice so I can’t talk very loudly.” I’m just hoping maybe it’s from the air in the apartment being dry because of the heat being on, or just some passing thing.

I’ve been sipping tea all morning and sucking on Ricola. Hopefully I won’t wake up tomorrow and feel like I was hit by a bus.

Lunch today is Thai leftovers! My favorite. We ordered Thai on Sunday for dinner and I had enough green curry w. tofu and veggies left to bring it for lunch yesterday and today. YUM. My coworker claims it would be super easy to make at home – just veggies, curry paste and coconut milk – I’m just not sure if I want to try cooking with curry.

My run last night was awesome. I told the hubby I had to just get changed as soon as we got home and get out the door and not think about it. I did exactly that and it felt great. Once I warmed up the cold didn’t get to me at all. It was funny though, since it was so cold and dark I got SO “suited up” to run. Running tights, long-sleeved wicking shirt, running jacket, headphones, reflective vest, headband, watch, gloves. It took a while to get out of it all once I got home.

Despite my raspy voice, I’m still planning to go to heated yoga tonight. I feel completely fine – I just sound awful. I’m actually kind of hoping that the sweating will help. I often go for runs when I have a small cold to “sweat them out” and it helps a ton. I have no idea if this is actually sound medical advice, but I know it works for me.

Workouts planned this week:
Monday – 30 minute run
Tuesday – Heated yoga (60 minutes)
Wednesday – EA Active arms and abs
Thursday – 30 minute run
Friday – Zumba
Saturday – Longer run
Sunday – Rest