Running strengthens your health; I cannot remember the last time I was sick. But, alas, I am now recovering from a headcold. It started Tuesday night (June 7) with a sore throat, typically a warning sign that I need to be careful. During the day I'd been tired, not surprising as I was working hard on the big job of painting the exterior of our house.
With a five-day trip to Toronto to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of Tim's parents pending, I was trying to finish the preparations and painting of a big wall on the side of our house, on top of work and run training. When I woke up the next day, my throat was just as sore as the night before so I decided to skip the one-hour run I had planned.
We flew to Toronto that afternoon (June 8). The next day I did a 65-minute easy run, allowing myself to get a little lost in the Don Mills neighbourhood. My legs felt light, even though my throat was still sore. Friday brought a wonderful anniversary lunch in the afternoon and a champagne toast at night.
On Saturday Tim and I went for a 90-minute run and then spent the rest of the day preparing for a garden party the next day. During the day I began sneezing repeatedly, and by Sunday I woke up with a headcold. Other than that I felt fine, and did a somewhat pacey 33-minute run around the neighbourhood - just like in my other sessions recently, my legs felt light and energetic.
On Sunday late afternoon, I flew back to Vancouver, and then drove back to Squamish. By Monday, I thought it no longer wise to train through my cold, as I worried it might move into my chest. So I took the day off, as well as Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. By Friday I wasn't back to normal but felt a lot better, and tried an easy 32-minute run, after a hot Epsom salt bath and a nap.
I did another, 40-minute, easy run on Saturday with Tim, my sister Angelique and Luka on Saturday and was ready to try a longer session yesterday, Sunday. Tim, Luka and I did a mostly flat run for about 95 minutes. I felt OK, and do today as well.
While I still have some mild cold symptoms left, so I won't push my pace, my body has been improving steadily over the weekend and I am hoping that come this Sunday, I'll be ready to run hard in the Scotiabank Half Marathon. I won't know until race day how my body has recovered from this cold, but I'll certainly be gunning for my 88:13 PB (set in the 2008 Sunshine Coast half marathon) and for improving on last year's 88:30 time in the Scotiabank half.
It's the first half marathon I'll be running together with Angelique, who is using this race as a stepping stone in the preparations for her first marathon, the 2011 GoodLife Victoria Marathon.
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