Let's talk turkey

So apparently working hard at the Fall Classic was enough to make my sickness worse.

My cold / crap in my throat decided to really take hold on Tuesday.  I had taken Monday off from working out as I felt generally tired.  Tuesday, I awoke early and just ran a nice moderate pace on the track with AM, while CV clicked off her repeats.  My calves felt a bit sore from Sunday's race and I just felt sick.  Mid-way through the afternoon I was just feeling crappy.  However, the husband was heading to jujutsu so I decided I would force myself to go to Masters Swim, but I did not feel like going at all.  Thankfully, even though I worked my tail off, I felt better after I was done than before I started.  Wednesday was another easy swim day and I felt worse than ever.  My throat now had a tight vice and I was coughing terribly without much of a voice.

The timing totally stunk, being the holidays and I had so many fun things on the calendar!!!  I passed on heading over to the social gathering at my sister's Wednesday evening and hit the hay early.  Thursday was the turkey trot in Aurora and I made my way over to my sister's place to meet up with them.

Despite feeling quite awful, I decided I would just run as hard as I could on this given day, knowing it would not be an ideal performance.  It was however a very nice day outside so I warmed up, barely made it through the bathroom line (dejavue!) and stripped down to my shorts, ctc tank and arm warmers at the start.

I again opted for no headphones and with the start, I was off.  I went out behind FD and felt pretty good that first downhill mile.  5:52.  I told myself that while it was fast, it was downhill so don't read into it!  I tried to find an effort to run steadily but not blow up.  I knew I was sitting in 3rd position for females. The fun thing about to course is there are two out and back sections where you can see the runners in front and behind you and I cheered for my sister, a bit shocked with how well she was running!

Around 2.5, 2 females passed me and I decided to keep my effort steady instead of upping my effort to go with them, knowing that the hill was approaching.  Last year I remembered pretty much blowing myself up there, so I ran conservatively up the hill.  I was feeling ok around the last one mile stretch and passed a couple guys but I pretty much just cruised into the finish.

Total time:  25:23, 6:21 pace
Last year my time was 26:21, 6:35 pace

So overall I was pleased that I managed to run nearly a minute faster, especially given how sick I felt.  Of course, I don't think that little trot made me feel any better but probably quite the opposite.  The BEST part of the day was that I was super proud of sis who ran a sub 28 and just under 7 min miles!  I had told her she should try to run sub 30 and boy did she show me!!  WOOOT!!

Sadly since I was not faster and did not place in the top 3 overall, I knocked her out of an AG placing as I took first in our AG and she had 4th.  I did score a $20 gift card to the Nike store (which I already spent!!).  Turkey day was then filled with eating and two family gatherings and me just feeling generally crappy.  Again I hit the hay early to wake up at 4AM for our traditional black friday shopping.

Poor me was just miserable but I did get lots of good deals.  Talking hurt my throat terribly, but I did my best to rally through the day.  I got home from everything just before 4PM and now my husband was sick too.  We scratched our evening plans (that I had been really looking forward to) and made some turkey noodle soup and curled up on the couches to watch some movies.

I had planned to wake up Saturday feeling good, but no such luck.  I figured I could feel sick at home or maybe a little better if I got out and did something.  So off to run some trails with SERC I went.  It was a gorgeous day with a good group.  I did not talk much as every word hurt my throat but I was happy to be out running trails with a bunch of fun people.  I would definitely say the uphills felt like much more of a struggle on this day with my funk.  We ended up with 11 muddy hilly miles.

I drove home and changed into some other clothes and was picked up to head out to West Branch to mountain bike.  Despite feeling generally crappy, I was enjoying the gorgeous November weather tremendously.  Our mountain bike ride was cut a little short for a few reasons but I could have rode all day.  We had another Thanksgiving feast Saturday night at my husband's family and I finally laid down in bed, so ready to get some rest.

However I tossed and turned and coughed most of the night.  I woke up to a rainy gray day but decided I should do something so I headed off to Solon to run.  I had no plan other than to roll with it and get some miles in.  I ended up running towards the front of the group and was happy to chat with NC and we ended up sticking together.  I was a little surprised that I was chatting away and clipping off miles at a decent pace.  My throat did not hurt sooo bad but I still was trying to breathe shallow as deep breaths brought on coughing fits.  All in all, I managed 12.75 miles at 7:12 pace and the run did not feel too hard.

Sunday was also a pretty lazy day and I crashed out early that night hoping to feel better today.  No such luck.  Despite plans to hit LFT early this morning, I opted to get some extra rest...maybe I will feel better tomorrow!!!