Recovery!

My recovery from the California International Marathon has been good and bad.

The good: VERY little muscle soreness. The first 15 minutes after the race were the worst it got. By Wednesday morning my legs felt good again. Darren has been really conservative on the recovery. There's been no running. Only yesterday was I allowed to do a very quick weights and core workout, with some warming up on the stationary bike before. Today was another day off. Tomorrow is a repeat of yesterday. And Sunday is another day off.

I might normally ask him for more, given how good my legs feel, but....

The bad: right after CIM I came down with a nasty cold. I knew it was coming. I'd had a tickle in my throat on the plane last week, and all day Saturday ahead of the race I could feel it coming on. But I knew I'd run anyway, and I didn't want to be making excuses.

Once I got home Monday, though, it hit me like a freight train. I had a fever, a cough, massive snot....the works. Wednesday afternoon I started to feel better. Yesterday I was fever-free finally. And today I actually felt like my old self, with minimal coughing. The snot is still there, but that's abating too.

So I'm saying....forget "no excuses." I'm giving about 15 minutes over my BQ time to the wind, and the other 6 or so minutes to the fact that I was coming down with this beast.

Back on the good news side, my CIM pictures miraculously didn't completely stink. I even bought one shot from the finish line:

I may buy more when they start dropping the prices later on. Some of the ones early on even show me smiling. I guess that's because I didn't yet know what was coming.

It's going to be a busy weekend here. Tomorrow a certain two people who also live in my house are turning six:

This little girl (six laps in the Timberwolf Trot fundraiser run at their school in September).

This little boy (seven Timberwolf Trot laps, more than any other kindergartner!).

They are having a climbing/swimming party. I'm happily planning on not being awake for the actual hour and minutes of their birth (3:30 a.m. and 3:31 a.m. respectively). I will try my best not to contaminate every child in the pool tomorrow with my germs. But I'm definitely planning on a couple of runs down the waterslides.

Unlike last weekend, I will be choosing to be soaked, and unlike last weekend it will be fun.

Cold, Iron, and Shoes

The Cold/Laryngitis: I am better! Not a big surprise, I guess, but a relief to be able to breathe and talk…and run. I went for my first run in four days, an easy 40-minutes, on my break at work today. It was so nice to run without chest tightness or coughing. It’s also really beautiful here right now.

Thanks to the City of Boulder Facebook page for the picture!

I’m regarding this cold as two things: Glass Half Full Me is calling it a booster for my immune system-- I’m hoping it will be the last one I get for a while now because surely my white blood cells are all on full alert; but Realist Me is thinking of it as a warning; my kids are in a new school, I work with the public and I’m going to be training hard; I need to be smart with sleep, nutrition and hand-washing.

Constant Vigilance!

A Visit to the Doctor: Last week before the illness hit I had my annual preventative appointment with my awesome doctor (he of the 2:50-on-a-bad-day-marathon). We did the usual check-up things (listening to the heart, discussing the past year's issues--everything but the female stuff), but he also did some sports doc things like testing my hamstring and hip flexor flexibility and discussing cheaper options for getting a shot in my back later if I decide I need one. It's always fun to talk to him, and I've never before had a doctor who "gets it" like he does.

Some of the outcomes were surprising. I got my blood test results back yesterday. My cholesterol numbers and glucose are good, and so is my thyroid, but the doc wants me to supplement. It seems that my iron is low, and while my Vitamin D isn't a problem right now, he's concerned that it's low enough that it could become a problem during the long days of winter and marathon training. Who knew?

So tonight will feature a trip to the drug store to get some special non-constipating iron, which I'll be taking for six weeks, and some Vitamin D, which I'll be on all winter.

New Shoes: If you've been reading this blog for while, you know I have no brand loyalty when it comes to shoes (or much of anything else). I've worn every brand of running shoe out there except some of the newer ones, and I will probably be this way forever. Since I started running again earlier this summer, I've been wearing Brooks Pure Flows. I like them just fine.

But last week, while I was having lunch with Kathy, Erin, Erin's mom and her coach (who were all in town for the Denver Rock n' Roll Marathon), her coach (a very interesting guy, and very knowledgeable) suggested I get another pair of shoes and alternate days wearing them.

Kathy, me and Erin after a fun and informative lunch (I stole this photo from Erin's blog; thanks Erin!)

My husband thinks I'm the Imelda Marcos of running shoes ("how many pairs do you have?" he asks me sometimes when he looks in the closet). But I've wanting to try the Saucony Kinvaras for a while. With two races I care about coming up, I decided Coach Rick's advice was all I needed to justify taking plunge and buying 'em. So my plan going forward will be to wear the Pure Flows one day and the Kinvaras the next, all the way through the California International Marathon in December.

Any other non-brand-loyalists out there? Do you take iron? Do you alternate shoes?

Still Resting.....

Between Dan (husband) and Darren (coach), I may never be allowed to run again!

Just kidding.

If I'd listened to Dan last week, I might be well and running today.

As it is, I'm missing not only runs but work. My voice is back, but still more like that of a teenage boy than my real voice, and I woke at 3:30 a.m. today with the kind of dry cough that won't let you sleep. Around 5, thanks to lots of water and two cough drops, I was able to doze off on the couch.

You can bet I'm going to listen to Dan now. And to Darren. Who drastically cut my running for the past weekend and the week ahead: none allowed Saturday, Sunday or today, and tomorrow is an iffy easy 30 minutes. I'm betting he'll nix that one, too, once he hears about last night and the coughing. If all is well, I'll be allowed to do a 70-minute progression run this weekend, but he's already said no to upping that back to the 90-minute version I would have done this past weekend (yeah, I asked).

I'm not really as grumpy about all this as I'm sounding. I know that this is what being smart looks like, and that this is the kind of rest that most of us don't allow ourselves when we get sick or start to feel an injury coming on. Like oxen hitched to a plow, we keep.....plowing. And that's NOT how you get better. It's another great thing about hiring a coach. There's someone objective out there telling you in ALL CAPS to slow-the-eff-down.

The way I see it, my job right now is to take a nap, drink lots of water and tea and read until I fall asleep. There is a blue sky ahead. In his note denying my request to go 90 minutes this weekend, Darren wrote:
...want to make sure you are completely healthy before going hard for two weeks prior to Detroit Half.

Going hard....yes, I'm going super easy today so I can go hard when the time is right.

Coping With Illness

I'm trying to be chill about this training cycle....while also of course nailing every workout and reaching my race goals in one triumphant December climax.

Ha! I know the second half of that sentence isn't possible for any of us imperfect beings. Still, when I noticed last week that I'd developed that tell-tale tickle in my throat, I tried to pretend it (it being "coming down with a cold") wasn't happening. Then, thanks to two nights of bad sleep due to a stuffy head, after which I had to admit that it was happening, I tried to be smart about it. My husband Dan (who is not ruled by emotion or race goals) told me to sleep in and maybe take a day off from running. I took part of his advice. I slept in on Monday, but ran later, on my break at work. For a few days after that, the thing seemed to be in remission. It was still there, but it didn't get any worse. I felt tired, but I was still getting my runs done, and mostly at the usual level.

On Thursday, I was able to grab a nap, but I woke up from it still tired. And yesterday--a fun day full of running friends in town for the Denver Rock n' Roll Marathon and Half (Kathy! Erin! and Erin's coach!), spectating at Jill's son's high-school cross-country meet where I also got to meet Marcia and then dining with our wonderfully nice next-door neighbors--left me literally....speechless.

My voice died last night at about 7 p.m. It hasn't come back 20 hours later. The kids and husband are all whispering back at my whispered comments to them. My throat is so sore I'm speculating about strep. On top of that, my chest is tight, I have a painful little cough, and I've spent most of today (during which I was supposed to go cheer for everyone in the Denver races) in bed asleep or sipping Annie Chun's Noodle bowls, reading about my friends' races and missing two other parties my family was invited to. I had a run on the books (90 minutes with progressively higher heart rates) that I was really looking forward to but now am missing and (depending on what Darren tells me and/or how I feel tomorrow) may have to skip altogether.

My questions are these:

1) Could I have avoided this had I taken a day off as soon as I knew I was getting a cold? And by taking a day off I mean not only not running but also calling in sick to work and sleeping all day. Dan thinks so, but to me it's so hard to say. The rule of thumb we've all heard is that it's OK to run through colds as long as you hydrate and as long as the cold is above the neck, which this one seemed to be for most of the week. I didn't really break that rule.....did I?

2) Does this really have the awful and dire implications for the Detroit half-marathon and the California International Marathon that I'm fearing in my current dark mood? It's one thing to miss a run. It's another thing to miss a LONG run. And when your long runs aren't all that long yet, you need 'em more than ever, right?

3) How do those of you out there who are smart deal with training illnesses? Because while I hope this is the only one I have to deal with until December, the reality is that I have small children who just started at a new school. There will likely be more sickness in my house this fall (and perhaps this whole academic year).

Like it or not, this isn't going to be perfect. Doesn't it stink to not be perfect?