Training Week 4: Happy New Years: The battle between me and my lungs.

Week 4's training schedule looked like this:

Monday: 3 easy miles with hills
Tuesday: 4 yassos + 1-2 mi WU/CD
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 4.5 mi tempo run + 1-2 mi WU/CD
Friday: 60 minutes cross training
Saturday: 10 mi long
Sunday: Rest or 45 min cross training

Well, this week was not good. Not good at all. I was hit with the cold from hell and was sicker than I've been in years. My body was angry and just said no. I was tired, achy, coughy, sneezy, stuffy... you name it, I was feeling it.

It didn't start out so bad on Monday when I decided I was feeling good enough to do my 8 mi long from the Saturday before. So I went out after work and did my 8 mi. It wasn't stellar, but it wasn't awful either. I went to bed that night, got up the next morning and felt like I had been run over by a truck.  Since I had taken Wed-Fri off from work (actually, I took Wed off and we were given Thurs and Fri, New Years Day and the day after New Years day), and I had an important meeting with one of my volunteers that afternoon I rallied and went into the office. I spent all day sipping tea and clutching my tissues thankful my meeting was at 3 o'clock so I could just go home after that. Once I got home I completely crashed and spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch with more tea and tissues.

Wednesday was New Year's Eve and Carolyn, Jack, and I had tickets to go to the Celtics game.  My body was really telling me not to go, but hopping that the large dose of Mucinex I had taken would help, we hopped into the car and drove into Boston. The game was good and the Celtics actually ended up winning (big shock!). We were up in the nosebleed seats, but we had a good time anyway.  After the game we got some hot chocolate and coffee from Dunkin Donuts since it was quite chilly outside and we walked to Scollay Square, the restaurant we made a reservation at. We were waiting on my friend Chantha to join us. He lives in Chelsea but works as a flight attendant for Jet Blue, so he was coming home from a trip that day. After waiting for a while outside the restaurant, which was right next door to the State House, we decided to go in and get some appetizers while waiting for him. Finally Chantha arrived and we all enjoyed a delicious lunch.  We all thought the food was pretty good, though portions were a bit small. Maybe dinner had bigger plates. After we finished eating we walked down to Boston Common to see the ice sculptures. It was very cold and a bit windy, but there were a ton of people out celebrating First Night. After watching an interesting skating show on the duck pond, we decided it was time we head home since we were all pretty cold. Once we got home, I unfortunately crashed again. My body just wasn't having it.  Jack and I were supposed to make an appearance at a friends party, but I was so sick I just couldn't move. It was not a very exciting New Year's eve for us, nor for Carolyn, whose friends had backed out on their plans. We unenthusiastically rang in the New Year and all went off to bed. Needless to say, there was no exercising on Wednesday.

Thursday was New Year's day and Dad and I had been signed up to run the First Run in Lowell for a few weeks. Before getting sick I had been really looking forward to it as I have heard good things about the race. Once I got sick though I was a little hesitant to run, but decided to give it a try, especially since I dropped down from the 10K to the 5K.  The run was cold, but I managed to make it through the 5K without feeling too bad and got a decent time too. The best part was that my knee didn't hurt at all and I plowed past a lot of people going up the one hill (small hill) on the course. After I finished I went in to get a drink at the Elks where the race was being held, and then waited for Dad, Cassie, Uncle Brian, and Auntie Joyce to finish their 10Ks.  Everyone did well though we all complained about the cold.  After the race we all headed over to Uncle Jim's and Aunt Kathy's for New Year's Day brunch.  I changed my clothes and enjoyed some food and after about half an hour I...crashed again. My poor body just wasn't ready to run again quite yet. Mom took me to get some more medicine from Walgreens and after we stocked up I rested for the rest of the day. As you may guess, I took the hint this time and decided there would be no running on Friday and unfortunately Saturday too. I was sad to miss my second team run in a row, but after emailing my coaches, they said it was better to rest up now than hold on to the cold for weeks to come. I knew they were right, but I was still bummed to miss it.

Today, Sunday, I was able to get an easy slow and painful 3.2 miles in, but I thankfully did not crash hard afterwards. Hopefully I'm REALLY on the mend this time and next week will be better. Unfortunately I only completed a meager 14.3 out of 29.5 possible miles this week.