Walking Around With A Balloon

And that balloon is my head. The cold I tried so hard to avoid came down on me on Thursday morning. It had been waiting in the shadows since last Thursday, so I told it on Wednesday night, “Just shit or get off the pot.” Really, this half cold thing was just annoying.  I guess it decided to take a big shit on my head. I slept good Wednesday, but on Thursday, I woke up feeling like total garbage. I’m almost relieved, though, because it’s not a 20 mile run weekend, and it’s far enough away from the marathon that the cold should be far gone by then.

I haven’t been sick in about three years. It’s been so long, I actually can’t remember, but I think it was before the Houston Marathon in January of 2013. That’s a long time to only have a sniffle here or allergy thing there. The longest EVER for me. I knew I was due, and was just glad it wasn’t the flu. So when I got up feeling like crap on Thursday, I decided to take a sick day. Basically, I spent the entire day on the couch either dozing or watching TV. It was sort of awesome in it’s own since I just don’t take sick days because I feel guilty, but of course, I’d much rather be super busy and feel good. I had my big fuzzy pink blanket (and the revolving door of cats cuddling with me) and getting off the couch was accompanied by huge shockers since our house is so dry because the heater never turns off because there’s no insulation and the downstairs is freezing which is why the heater is always on.  I did get a casserole made though.

Vitamins and Kleenex. My two favorite things.

I slept really good on Thursday night and woke up this morning feeling like a had a huge Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon for a head. If I had a choice, I’d either pick Garfield or Hello Kitty. But I wish I could jam a big ice pick into my ears to relieve the pressure and give myself the ability to hear again. I don’t think it works that way though. I’m lucky, this could be so much worse. I didn’t feel good about missing my Thursday workout, so I decided to get out for a run and just see how it went before I decided how many miles to go. It was 17 degrees with a breeze, so I dug out my mask that was in the very back of my closet from those Iowa years.

I gonna rob you. I tried to run with it like this but my glasses kept fogging up.

Layered up, covered up, and ready to go. Surprisingly, my legs felt great. I mean, they felt really, really good. I was envisioning the marathon this morning. I thought of pushing myself, pushing hard, and meeting my goal. I saw myself crossing that finish line and crying. I hope it really happens and I’m crying because I met my goal. Having a vision of your race is a powerful thing.

I decided to go 6 miles, ended up being a little farther out, so ended up with 6.4 miles and it ended up being in race pace range, 8:25 . How did that happen?  No complains from me.

Goofy face, but it was frozen. Just glad to have a good run today.

This weekend’s workouts are lighter, but I think I’m going to try and work in some tempo paces since I missed it this week due to both kinds of cold. It was so cold here, the kids even had a one hour late start. On a day they get out early. So much for doing anything productive (besides running) today.

Unfortunately, I have a head cold, which means my head is super full, and my nose is behaving like a faucet. I truly don’t undersatand how you can be congested with a runny nose at the same time.  I have a swim clinic to attend both Saturday and Sunday. I’m hoping I can get the faucet to be a little less leaky as snotting in the pool with my friends isn’t something I’m super interested in doing. I’ll see how it goes, but I know the clinic will do me good. I just wish I could’ve gotten in this week to practice from my lesson a few weeks ago. I have to run 6 on Saturday and 12 on Sunday, hopefully with some good pickups I mentioned above. Other than running and the clinic, we might go check out the movie McFarland, USA with the kids. Looks super inspiring and what’s better than going to a movie? Going to a movie about running.

What’s everyone up to this weekend? Tired of the cold? Anyone been sick recently? It sucks, doesn’t it?