Hello!!!
IF you are following me on instagram (@cupcakesforPRs), you can probably see that overall my training has been going well. I have been doing pretty good pace wise and all my interval/tempo work seems to be falling into place. Wellllll………..that was until last weekend.
Last week I was out of town traveling to for work BUT I still hit the hotel gym, crushed all my workouts and was feeling pretty good. Then Saturday came along, I did my 16 mile long run and felt like my 8:08 pace was pretty fantastic. I was also feeling pretty good as I took my honey stinger gel with me, taking it at mile 6.5 and had ZERO stomach issues!!! However after my long run I was feeling a little bit more tired than normal, and I could feel this scratchy feeling in the back of my throat.
Sunday I decided to push on with an easy 6 outside with my running buddy Reese. My chocolate lab Reese loves to run with me, and I try to make Sunday mornings our day. Our quick and easy 6 left me feeling less than fantastic. I tried to put my strong face on but I could tell I was getting SICK….
Monday morning I woke up feeling like death……CRAP! Monday’s are my interval days, maybe I could just sneak to the basement, try these intervals out and head back to bed afterwards. That is when my husband saw me. He said hey are you feeling aright? He knew I was feeling pretty cruddy the night before. I told him I wasn’t feeling the best but was going to run. Dana quick talked some sense into me, and I honestly knew no miles needed to be done…I WAS SICK.
I reached out to all my running friends on Facebook….WHAT DO I DO!?!?!??! This isn’t part of the Hanson’s Marathon Method!!! Sickness, NOT RUNNING! WHAT THE ****** I am training for a marathon, I don’t have time for this! Well, at times life happens and we have to be adaptable.
I was sicker than sick and didn’t leave bed from Monday-Wednesday, at one point I even think my husband threatened to unplug the treadmill, if I even thought about training and running. I needed to rest! I honestly haven’t been that sick in a long time! Tuesday was my usually scheduled rest day, so I guess that made me feel a bit better. However, I still lost training days on Monday and Wednesday. GUESS what??? My body needed REST! The flu I had was terrible and I still am not back to 100%.
I heard from many running friends that rest was the best thing to do. You need to rest your body and fight the sickness, not to mention my 101 temperature. In the back of my head I knew everything would be fine, but I am not going to lie I was still worried.
After resting, I decided I needed to slowly get back to things. I don’t want to push my body as it’s still recovering, and I DON’T want to have this flu come back! Thursday I did a very slow 6 miles, Friday was a slow 8, Saturday a slow and easy 10 (inside as it was a bit chilly out), today (Sunday) I did a nice an easy 7 with Reese. Tomorrow I am back to intervals. I am going to go at it nice and easy, making sure NOT to overdo it.
I am lucky as I still have over a month left of training, so if one were to get sick it’s better to get sick now rather than during peak training. So my advice to you as you are gearing up for Cleveland…if you get sick, take care of you! It’s ok to take a day heck even a week off to rest and get better. In the long run you will be thankful you did!! Also, make sure to take it nice and slow as you get back into training. Your body needs to adjust as it was just fighting something terrible.
Also my PSA, if you are sick and stuck in bed treat yourself to some netflix as daytime TV is just terrible, especially the VIEW… that is just CRAP! You can never get that hour back NEVER!!!
How is your training going? Have you managed to dodge the flu? Have you been sidelined by sickness?