Saturday, April 27, 2013

Let's just hope Ebola is not on the docket for May

When I'm not running, I'm not feeling inclined to post.  In fact, I wasn't even inclined to read many bloops last week.  I ran an impromptu half-marathon last Sunday on the Greenway before work and had a full-blown case of strep throat by midday Monday.  I writhed and whined and complained for 2 days with a fever hovering around 103*.  By Thursday evening, I was able to get some food down without it being super painful and Friday I was starting to feel back to normal.

Today, I knew I wanted to get back to running.  I am not one to be overly cautious about my health, but since I came down with the flu 24 hours after my March marathon and this strep business happened right after this random half, methinks I need to play it safe.  We all know that I'm not a crazy health food nut, but I do try to eat right 75% of the time--my kale smoothies, tons of fruits/veggies throughout the day, and mostly home-cooked meals have to contribute to something.  I get plenty of sleep.  I get plenty of exercise (more running, less other stuff, but whatevs). I'm in a happy relationship. I'm financially stable. My work is generally not terribly stressful.  So I'm not sure what is going on with all this illness.  In the past 10 years, I normally just get a cold for a couple of days once a year.  Hopefully it's just flukey and I won't have Ebola next month.

I ran tonight though.  It was a strange run, but overall pretty good coming off 5 days of illness.  I told myself to start out slow and just figure out how far I wanted to go based on how I felt.  But as I hit the 2 mile mark, I knew I was going to do my standard 7 miler and was hovering around 7:50 mm.  Way too fast to be comfortable, but I was so happy that I was running again.  I used the facilities at the turnaround point and then headed back.  Somewhere near the 5 mile mark, my Garmin completely died.  In a way, I was kind of glad because I would have no idea how fast I was going.  I could just run the last 2 miles at whatever pace I deemed to be comfortable.  It was getting to be twilight so I kept it closer to a tempo pace.  No one was on the Greenway so I just ran right in the middle like I owned the joint!  It felt good to know that 5 days off and I was no worse for the wear.

I dipped below 100 in my monthly mileage in March; I likely will in April as well.  Nearly a week without running will do that.  I am not currently training for anything, but I hope to enjoy at least a few cool mornings in May by doing some long runs.  And, of course, I hope to get back over the 100 mile mark.  I'm not obsessed with my numbers in the sense that I need to hit the mark all the time, I just use it as a good gauge of my own fitness. So, I am saying 'ta-ta' to these sub-100 months and 'hello' to May!

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