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TCM Training Week 7

Been Sick.

Past Posts

Two years ago I ran the CdLS 5K. Someone stopped me recently when wearing the shirt and asked if I knew anyone with CdLS.  I said it was just a race I had run.  He had a son with CdLS and thanked me for helping raise money for the cause.  That was pretty cool.  I bought a pair of Pearl Izumi shorts to wear for my marathon and reviewed them.  I wrote about education in Africa as part of my World Vision fundraising.  I run a lot on the Midtown Greenway, it is a great place to run and bike.  Foto Friday was from the Outer Banks Killer Dunes 2 mile race.

Last Year’s Mileage

Run: 39.3 Miles
Bike: 30.3 Miles
Swim: 300 Yards

This Year’s Training

Last week I felt a little off one day, ran the next and felt great, then didn’t feel so well again.  On Friday I woke up with a pain in my neck and lower back (when I stretched).  I opted not to run and by the evening I was starting to feel achy and exhausted.

Saturday I woke up with a fever, achy, chills, and still with the 2 pains.  I convinced Christy to take me to Urgent Care and we arrived right before a big rush.  The doctor spent maybe 10 minutes with us – listening to my symptoms and quickly checking my body over.  She ordered a CBC to check my white blood count.  The lab tech had trouble drawing my blood because I was so cold, he managed to get enough to  test my blood.  We then met the doctor again and she said that things looked fine in my blood so I had some type of virus.  She indicated that she couldn’t test me for H1N1 aka Swine Flu.  She also said that she couldn’t prescribe the tamiflu to me anyway so there was no reason to test for it.  I was also missing 2 of the “indicating symptoms” of H1N1.

My symptoms don’t really match any specific virus that I can find online.  I don’t have enough for lyme disease or West NileWebMD has lots of great diseases that I checked out over time, but none really matched my symptoms.

I mostly have a fever while I’m sleeping or napping.  Which is what I’m supposed to be doing.  My temps have ranged from 96.3 to 102.3 since Saturday.  Friday was the last time I slept through the night.  Every other I’ve been awoken by the fever.  When I haven’t had a fever I feel pretty good and life seems normal (except for the being cooped up at home part).  But once the fever hits I don’t feel so hot again.

Luckily, I’ve been able to eat full, regular meals without an stomach or intestinal distress.  That is the only upside of my being sick.

Over the last week I’ve had to miss work everyday, a board meeting for the YNPN in the Twin Cities, SALT (English tutoring), a race, 2 group runs, small group, and had to reschedule an appointment with a physical therapist for my running.  Not to mention that it has been an amazing week, weather wise.

I’m planning on going to a doctor today.  Hopefully they will be able to do something for me, besides just rest and drink lots of fluids.

I’ve been tweeting about my illness. Check out this link to see what I’ve said  #stupidvirus

By the weekend I was feeling a lot better, but not quite good enough to risk going for a run or bike.  Soon enough.

This Year’s Mileage

Nada.

Did you actually finish MOby Dick? I couldn’t do it, but I tried in 7th grade

Happy 2nd Blogiversary!!

treehuggerpresentHappy Blogiversary!! Hard to believe that it has been 2 years of blogging about my running adventures.  Thank you for making it possible.  I appreciate your comments, feedback, and thoughts throughout the journey.

As a treat I’ve picked 5 highlights/blog posts from the last two years (out of almost 500) to share with you as a special present.  This was no easy task so I hope you appreciate them!

1) Completing my first marathon and dedicating it to my African friends by raising money for World Vision

2) I also enjoyed reading and sharing thoughts from the Sacred Art of Running

3) Being in Minneapolis wouldn’t be complete without winter running (almost getting hypothermia) and running along the Minneapolis Riverfront

4) A delicious post about running strategies

5) Who doesnt like the idea of ruining their next race

Finally, a must read post that I stole from someone else talks about proper t-shirt etiquette.

Changes in 2009

At the beginning of a new year it is always good to reflect back on the previous year and figure out things that worked and things that didn’t work.  This way you can make changes to improve yourself in the upcoming year. One of the things that I’ve realized in the past few weeks is that I devote a lot of time to running.  I actually only spent 1/52 of 2008 physically running (that’s one week), but if you count all of the additional time required – preparing, driving, stretching, core workouts, cool down, and getting cleaned up, the act of running begins to greatly expand.  It might be safe to assume that with all of the above included running takes about 1/26th of your time (2 weeks).

Yes but that still isn’t a lot of time, true true.  Sleeping takes up over 17 weeks a year.  Work takes up another 12.  Both numbers assume you work and sleep on average 8 hours a day.  So that right there is 29/52 weeks of your year.

Other set things in my schedule include attending church which is about 1 week a year, teaching ESL which is also about 1 week.

I would project that blogging both here and on my personal blog consumes at least 2 weeks a year worth of time.  That includes research, writing, editing, commenting on other’s blogs and being involved in the online community of bloggers.  We are now up to 33 of my 52 weeks.  If you throw in e-mail, my blog reader, and other social networking I’d estimate that I up to 36 weeks.

What does all this mean? All of this means that I spend almost 3/4 of my time away from my beautiful wife doing things for me!  I would love to be able to blog and be engaged in the social networking as a full time job, but that isn’t really a reality for me.  It is hard to admit because I enjoy it so much.

Ok, so the point of this long post is to say that I’m adjusting my posting schedule.  Most of you know that I currently post 5 days a week.  I’m going to change that to 3 days a week, keeping the week in review on Mondays and Foto Friday.  This hopefully means you will get a high quality post on Wednesdays! I will have the freedom to post on Tuesday or Thursday if I so desire or if something timely comes up.

Thank you to my faithful readers for your support and feedback.  Please keep it coming and I look forward to a great 2009, in running and all the areas of our lives!

Happy 2009!!

Welcome to the New Year!!! We here at Team Cross wish you a wonderful and blessed 2009. It is hard to imagine what is going to happen in the new year, there is always so much potential with the beginning of a new year.

This is a good time to think about what is coming up and also to reflect on where your life is going.  I’ll be honest I haven’t thought too much about specifics for 2009 or really examined my goals from 2008.  I do know that I didn’t meet any of my time goals but I did PR in many races which is great.

What are your plans for 2009?

I’m currently planning on running both a spring and fall marathon although the details of both are still fuzzy. I would like to PR and break all of my time goals from 2008:

5K – sub 18:00

10K – sub 40:00

Half-Marathon – sub 1:30

Marathon – 3:10 (Boston Qualifying)

2008 Yearly Mileage

Running – 1374.2 miles or 177 hours or just over a week!

Biking – 1024.8 miles or 6 hours

Swimming – 2 miles

Have a wonderful new year!

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