Apologies for the lack of posts lately…it’s been a rough week on several fronts. Sickness, bad weather, the winter “blahs”, a packed schedule, and other crap pretty much made this past week a week to forget.
Last week ended on a relatively positive note, I suppose. I’m not a big believer in relying heavily on the weather forecast when making plans because the weather in Cleveland changes so rapidly. However, when I saw a beautiful Saturday sandwiched in between a stretch of rainy weather and cold, snowy weather, I knew that I had to plan to work in a long run on Saturday.
The weather proved to be as good as advertised on Saturday, and I tore off a great 5.5 mile run on Saturday around sunset. Although I was a bit overdressed for much of the run, I felt great throughout the run and I figure that learning how to run successfully in less-than-perfect conditions is good practice for the future. The beautiful views of the Cleveland skyline during sunset made for great running as I traversed the Abbey Road Bridge and ran along the northern edge of Tremont.
I’ve lived here almost 32 years and have seen the skyline thousands of times, but seeing Cleveland’s skyline at sunset still makes my heart race with excitement. I love living here!
Best of all, my feet were totally pain-free until the very end of the run and I woke up with absolutely no pain on Sunday!
Perhaps the pain in my feet simply migrated elsewhere in my body, because I woke up on Sunday feeling completely awful. I’m not sure if I had the flu or just developed a sore throat because of a dry house, but in any case I spent much of Sunday with a sore throat and congested head. This was a shame, as my illness sapped my energy on what I had hoped would be a great day of watching playoff football and enjoying dinner and board games with new friends.
Anyone ever play Ticket to Ride? Fortunately, my blahs didn’t keep me from learning how to play this very enjoyable and fun game. Can’t wait to play it again!
My symptoms lasted all week long, and despite getting a great deal of sleep every night I felt completely exhausted every day. I feel better now, but I’m grateful that I have another weekend ahead of me to rest.
Needless to say, I haven’t done much exercise at all for a week. Selfishly, I’m grateful that the weather outside has been bad, because I know I’d feel worse if I sat inside blowing my nose like a foghorn and pushing fluids while I watched parades of runners stride proudly up and down my street. (I picked a great week to get sick, I suppose!) In a futile attempt to motivate myself, I went out and bought a kettlebell (on sale!) in the hopes that having a workout at arm’s reach would inspire me. Nope. I even took a detour after doing some legal work downtown on Thursday and swung by Cleveland Browns Stadium in the hopes that seeing the starting and ending spot of the Cleveland Marathon would pump me up. That didn’t work either.
I can’t tell if the funk in which I’ve been over this past week is due to a lack of exercise or if a lack of exercise has put me in a funk—I guess it’s like the question about the chicken and the egg—but I am definitely looking forward to next week. With my health on the rebound, a less-packed work schedule, and temperatures slated to be above freezing, I feel like I’m poised for a great week of running. My plan is to do one indoor run on Monday, one indoor run on Wednesday, and a long outdoor run on Saturday. Here’s hoping!
2 comments
Comment by Evan on January 27, 2013 at 6:04 am
Hope that you are beginning to feel better. Its been a brutal week to try to train outside! Spring marathons are always a challenge because training begins in the middle of winter and then the race could be in the heat and humidity.
Don’t worry about the “funk”. I’ve found that my motivation fluctuates throughout the marathon cycle. Last weekend I could hardly muster up the energy to run 5 miles and this week I totaled ~63 miles. Stick with it, the motivation will come back.
Comment by Joe on January 27, 2013 at 11:15 pm
Thanks for the comment and encouragement! I’m feeling mostly better. I’m still a bit congested, but nothing awful.
I hear what you’re saying about marathon training. I have seen all sorts of posts and Tweets about the Key West Half Marathon and the RunDisney runs, and while the cold temperatures have already caused me to put them on my Google Calendar for consideration in 2014, part of me is thinking, “How am I going to train for these runs?”
I’m a bit nervous about the weather during the Cleveland Marathon, but I figure that’s something totally out of my control and I shouldn’t worry about it until closer to the time. My wife graduated from law school in 2010 on the day of the marathon and the weather was gorgeous. In contrast, I graduated from law school on the day of the marathon in 2011 and the weather was absolutely awful. I was out of town last year but I heard it was hot.
I am desperately hoping to squeeze in an indoor run tomorrow. The weather looks bad for the weekend so I might have to go for a long run on Wednesday. I realized how much I missed running after this week and can’t wait to get back to it. Good luck with your training!