by Natalie on October 22, 2009
A few mornings ago I woke up with that subtle, yet horrible sensation of a sore throat coming on. I swigged down some Airborne, started popping Vitamin C, and broke out Sudafed nasal decongestant pills (one of the few medicines in my cabinet). The sore throat came and went but quickly moved on to a relatively runny nose which has in turn caused a nice phlegmy, but sometimes dry, cough. Despite the fact that I have this minor cold, I will knock on wood as I write, “I don’t get sick.” I’ve been knocking on wood saying this for years.
The last time I got sick–and it was this same kind of sick–it lasted for about five days and was right over top of this year’s New Year’s holiday. The last time I got sick was at the very beginning of training for my first marathon and this particular cold is coming at the end of training for my second marathon. Despite the sniffles and coughing, I still maintain that I refuse to get sick. [click to continue…]
by Natalie on October 17, 2009
Heavy, cold rain is not my ideal running weather. Photo by AlmazUK.
I’m not a huge fan of running on treadmills. It’s also not something I’m good at which makes me like it even less. But when it’s 45 degrees outside and there is a steady, heavy, cold rain, I have to admit I’d rather run on the treadmill than in that weather. The trouble is that I’m on week 12 of training for the Richmond Marathon and I already lost one 7 mile day to the weather and my own schedule. The weekend called for 8 miles and 15 miles and I started agonizing over how I was going to make this happen as soon as I saw the forecast earlier in the week.
I had already planned to flop the 8 and 15 so that the 15 was on Saturday and the easy 8 would be on Sunday. I believe I’ve run 7 miles on a treadmill before but I literally couldn’t wrap my brain around doing 15. For the first Saturday in a very long time I did not have to set my alarm clock and I was able to just let my body sleep as long as it needed. And apparently I needed sleep; by the time I got to the gym it was 10:45 a.m.! I was headed to the gym thinking I’d shoot for 8 miles and if I could get to 15 that would be awesome; I decided to deal with the remaining miles as best I can on Sunday and if I don’t get to this week’s full 47 then I’ll just have to deal with that. [click to continue…]
