A.M. Woke up at 2 AM, head fuzzy, feeling chills. Thought it would go away, it did not. Decided not to run at all this morning. Maybe will do the kids runs if they are feeling good tonight, or maybe just a couple of miles of jogging otherwise. It is the same virus that my kids have gotten. No mucus, no cough, no major fever, but the chest gets very tight so it is painful to breathe. It feels like some nerves are getting irritated. Drinking lots of fluids, staying mostly in bed. Our bishop came and gave me a blessing.
P.M. After spending most of the day in bed decided to go for a brief shake-out. It went better than expected. At first my chest was hurting like crazy and I could not breathe. Started out at slower than 9:00 and for a while it felt like this was the limit. Then I learned how to manage the pain, and sped up to bit slower than 8:00. Hit the first mile in 8:26, then headed back. Learned to manage the pain even better, and noticed that my legs were actually just as strong as they were before I got sick, I just was not getting enough oxygen because breathing was so painful. My body told me it would be OK to push through the pain a little bit. I eventually progressed to 7:12 pace for the last 0.75, and finished 2 miles in 15:50. Never thought I'd be so excited about running 2 miles at sub-8:00 pace. I am learning to count my blessings. It also helped me realize how tough my kids are being able to run through this breathing pain. Being an adult, and having experienced a lot in 23 years of running, I still had to reach into the depths of my mental toughness to be able to go. Benjamin and Julia ran 1.05 with Sarah today. Jenny took a break, she is still suffering from the same chest problem.
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