Sick!

Boom – it hit me like a ton of bricks.  I’m sick…ugh, I hate being sick.  I guess I should count myself lucky that I didn’t get sick while Jen was in chemo with a weakened immune system.  Jen always laughs at me because I will never admit I’m sick, but I felt it coming on Monday afternoon with a sore throat, that turned into sinus pressure, that turned into a stuffy nose/heat, and has moved into my chest ending in an overall feeling of ickiness.  Last night I finally made the designation…it’s official.  It’s not the laid up in a used tissue infested bed, watching Oprah (NO…I don’t watch Oprah), chicken-soup and cracker diet, only thing that will help is a Nyquil induced coma type of sick…luckily.  I’m still going to work, but my workouts have taken a back seat for a short time, and although I’m trying to keep my diet on track, I haven’t felt much like making lunches or dinners.

Someone once told me not to push physical activity when you’re not feeling well.  Good advice.  I can remember one time I didn’t take that good advice and turned a head cold into a week long date with my sofa and (AWFUL) daytime TV while slipping in and out of “green haze” consciousness.  I learned from my mistakes and have taken the last couple of days off to recover.  The good news is I’m starting to feel better, and might get in a yoga session tonight.  The bad news is I’m missing out on a golden opportunity to take advantage of the groundhog’s gift to endurance athletes.  Oh well…my time will come.

Nonetheless, to get everyone up to speed – the official TNT kick-off was a week ago, and our first official training was on Saturday.  I got to meet my team.  There are 8 of us going to Philadelphia (9 counting our campaign manager).  Our honor patient (a recent Hodgkin survivor) is actually on the team!  He was just cleared by his doctor to participate and I’m very excited for him.  The rest of the team seems extremely well manneredJ, and I’m looking forward to getting to know them better in the near future.

Our first training took place at Centerpoint Medical Center in Independence at 7am.  Yeah, half way to Columbia (or so it seemed).  I guess I should get used to this, because most of the trainings are either out south or east.  Maybe I can convince them to hold one at the downtown airport, or better yet, up Interurban Road (more on that in following posts once the weather improves). 

So I woke up at 6, threw on my training garb, made a PB and H, snagged a banana, filled up my water bottle, and headed out the door.  When I got there, I was met by all the warm faces of the TNT spring team, the “newbies” of the summer team, the staff, and coaches.  The staff and coaches made a couple announcements, and sent us off on our merry way.   The goal was to run 3 miles, but I figured I’d go a little further.  I could feel the cold air in my lungs, but my legs felt good as I kept up with the 2^nd group (the 1^st group must have been out for blood).  After a few miles conversations started budding and I realized I was actually running with the marathoners.  Luckily, their training goal was only 4 miles today.  Friendly bunch (as is typical with all participants in/around this program).  I met a guy in the Air Force who just ran a half marathon in Afghanistan and a girl whose bucket list includes a marathon in each state.  Before we knew it – wrong turn…where are we?  Luckily we hadn’t gone too far off track, but the consequence was that instead of 4 miles we actually ran closer to 5.  I know now to bring my Garmin wherever I go so I can track my pace, effort, and distance, because it seemed like no one had any idea how far we had gone. 

My apologies – I’m realizing this is kind of a bland post, but like I said…not feeling too well.  I’m hopeful the next one will be livelier with me feeling better in the nicer weather.

In closing – Congrats to Troy and Shannon who brought their 2^nd bundle of joy into the world…Reid Michael (you can see posts on Troy’s facebook page…yeah he joined facebookJ)

Cheers!