Hills for breakfast, hold the gnats

I've spent the past 48 hours trying not to have a cold.  I think I'm winning.  :)

On Saturday night I suddenly had a very bad feeling in the back of the roof of my mouth and was sneezing like crazy.  So I launched Project Immune Strength (vitamins C & D, peppermint tea, and a protein snack - not in that order) and went to bed at 8 PM.  

I spent most of Sunday on the couch wrapped in wool, but not enjoying it as much as one thinks one would when one can't. (Did that make sense?) At night I produced an artificial (virus killing) fever by sitting in the 104F hot tub for 20 minutes.  

Things were looking good. I thought I might run this morning until Mr. Sno gave me a rare admonition (he normally stays pretty quiet about my health choices) to give it one more day.  Early to bed, hoping he was wrong, but at 5 this morning it did seem like a bad idea. Still had the weird post-nasal pain thing.  

Other than the general I-miss-running factor, what really ticks me off is that yesterday was mild, calm and dry weather. And today is mild, calm, dry weather.  Could this not happen to me when the gales are blowing?!?  No, that's not a request, Powers That Be.  Just saying.

Well, the main point of my long non-run blogging here is to say that this little routine of mine really works and if you start to get a cold I highly recommend it!  Although I've missed two runs and spent one day on the couch, I feel pretty good today and I have not had to carry a tissue box by my side at all.  You have to include the usual vitamin C, rest and fluids, but add to that 6,000-8,000 IU of vitamin D3 throughout the day, eat no sugar, drink peppermint, chamomile or ginger tea, and increase your protein. Stay very warm and humidify your room if possible.  C'est tout.  Dr. Sno hopes to be running again tomorrow. 

39F, partly cloudy w/ full moon poking through.  Calm & dry.  Easy 3 miles, then hill repeats (4 x 1 min w/ 2 min recov., 15-17% grade), then another easy 3.  10 min. core & pushups.

Other than being a little tired and having to blow my nose a few times, I felt pretty good today.  I adjusted my scheduled hill repeats to 4 instead of 6 and didn't push to the maximum, as a concession to any lingering threat of illness. 

I found a new hill for my repeats, just as steep as Leg Builder but located on a quiet street. (Sean and Jeff, it's the very tail end of Douglas Ave., where it is no longer an arterial.)   The odd thing was, I had an audience for a while.  This guy was standing in his front window, seemingly watching me go up and down, up and down.  "Hasn't he got anything better to do? Or is he watching the full moon set?"  Just before the last rep, as it was shifting from amusing to annoying, his carpool picked him up and all was explained.  Well, he'd better get used to it, because I thought it was a great spot for hill work and I'll be back.  

27F, clear & starry.  Icy in places.  Easy run w/ faster last mile.  20 min. weights & stretching.

I confess I really doddled getting out the door this morning.  I think somewhere in the back of my mind it seemed like a dangerous outing for a person with sniffles.  But it was fine once I got going and warmed up.

To ponder...  when I stopped at the bathroom I noticed that the skin on my legs was freezing cold. Does that affect the muscles?  I did feel slow today and would love to blame it on the weather.

40F, mostly clear, wind 13 mph w/ gusts to 30 mph (wind chill 33F).  Tempo run: 3.75 warm up w/ hill pushes, 3 miles @ tempo (various paces due to hills and wind), remainder cool down + 2 miles on the dreadmill.  10 min abs & pushups after.

My tempo run went pretty well, considering the conditions, terrain, and my lingering mucus issues.  This is the first tempo run I've done since September, so I only ran 3 LT miles instead of the 4 I'll do next time.  I felt good and was able to push hard.  

I kept the pace pretty close to 8:30 on the flats and downhills, but occasionally it climbed to 8:50 if I was going into the wind.  Definitely over 9:00 on the uphills, but I no longer want to loop around and around the only flat streets in the neighborhood just so I can see a consistent number on the Garmin.  I feel like I do all right if I start on relative flatness to get a feel for the pace, and then go wherever I want to go.  I'm childish that way.   

28F, rising to 35. Calm, clear and frosty.  Endurance run, club run, Leg Builder Hill.

When my running club buddies turned back on the SV Trail, I decided to keep going. It seemed like a good idea at the time.  In hindsight, it was too much... gravel.  

I turned up the Mt. Si Road and ran a few miles, then turned around and faced the long 10 miles home.  Since most of my Mt. Si Road mileage was on the shoulder, that made about 12 miles of running on gravel and piercing little rocks.  Too much.  Note to self, don't do that.  

Anyway, it just tired me out.  At around mile 14 I felt all the powers of Gravity and then some.  Going up the Parkway after so many miles was a practice session for pushing through fatigue.  Right now I feel totally worn out.  I'm going to eat some more, take a shower, and see if I can manage the Christmas shopping I had planned.