Weather - 19 degrees, sunny, very windy. Snowstorm yesterday evening, when I got up this morning 4-5 inches were on the ground. The temperature with the wind was intimidating, so I wore 4 shirts, 2 jackets, 2 pairs of socks, heavy gloves, hat and face mask. I ran 1.5 miles to Crystal Lake Park on semi-plowed streets, which were thick with ice. When I got to the park and Busey Woods I began to trudge through the fresh snow, which made me feel as if each step taken was a sort of weight lifting exercise for the legs. I was hoping to run 7 miles but after 57 minutes I stopped, knowing I had worked hard enough (I am guessing I went about 6 "easy" miles). I did a few sets of strength exercises and then walked home, which took a little over an hour (compared to the normal 40 minutes). When I got home I felt more exhausted than usual, and I attributed this to the severity of the snow run. But now I am feeling feverish, and with a bit of an upset stomach, which could mean a bout of food poisoning. Since becoming a vegetarian 10 years ago I have had only 1 fever, and that was due to eating leftover chili-mac which had sat in the fridge one day too long. When I was a meat eater I would get severe cases of vomiting and fever 2-3 times a year. So, I am trying to figure out what I ate which could be the culprit. I had homemade pumpkin curry soup yesterday and this afternoon, maybe the pumpkin was bad? Or is it a case of the so-called "flu"? Either way, I am hoping to run tomorrow, even if it is only a mile. I am embarrassed to say that I may be becoming one of those runners who refuses to take a zero on the calander. When I read of those people in the past (e.g., Mark Wetmore of University of Colorado, who refused to have foot surgery because it would force him to miss 1 day of running), I thought of them as having fallen into the trap of being enslaved to the running calender. Maybe that is still true, and I am slowly allowing the noose of numbers to dominate my running philosophy. But, having now accumulated 30 consecutive days, the momentum is building, and I would hate to see it reversed.
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