This week’s stats:
34 miles
5 runs, 2 days off
Sick with fever on Tuesday and Wednesday
2 days in Laguna Beach
After coming off such a great training last week, it was a huge bummer to go for a run on Tuesday morning and feel oddly weak. I asked Jenna if we could turn around sooner than I wanted, and struggled to get home. Once I was within 600 meters of my place, I stopped and walked. A couple of hours later, I still felt off, with flashes of hot, followed by cold. I took my temperature: 100.3 . My overall wellbeing declined quickly. I had very little appetite and couldn’t stay warm, but then would get too hot. The fever continued all the way into Wednesday night, and finally subsided on Thursday morning, but other symptoms of a cough, phlegm in the throat and overall pressure in the chest continued through the rest of the week.
While I took Wednesday off, I made the mistake of trying to run with friends on Thursday afternoon. I had to stop and walk a couple of times and went 7 miles, nearly double the distance that I should have. I was overly optimistic that the run would be fine since I didn’t have a fever anymore, but the fact was that I probably had the flu and my body was still recovering and trying to repair itself.
The biggest bummer about getting sick this week was that the Laguna Beach training camp was over the weekend. I was conflicted about going, mainly due to a fear of spreading my illness to my other friends also training for Boston. By Friday, things had cleared considerably and I decided to go. I also knew that everything I had envisioned for the weekend - such as just crushing hard long runs with Rachel - were no longer a reality, so I decided to make the most of it. Instead of trying to get in another short run on Sunday, I opted instead to borrow Juan’s bike so I could give fluids to the long run crew. I spent the morning zooming back and forth, passing bottles to Shal, Juan, Job, Tom and Rachel. And, you know what? I had a blast. I just knew that taking the day off from running was such a better idea than trying to run 4-8 miles that could probably set me back much more than a casual bike ride alongside my friends.
Shal, Caitlin and Rach
While the weekend wasn’t exactly what I had envisioned, I was so grateful to be at such a beautiful home with my Boston running buddies and to be in such awesome weather down in SoCal. I even got to see my sister at Tom’s beach!
All in all, this week was definitely another blip on the road to Boston. However, I do believe that by making (mostly) the right choices while I was sick, I’ll hopefully be able to have strong training next week! Here’s to hoping!
Grateful for Tom and his generosity in letting us have a training camp in Laguna Beach!