The Waiting Game

My left foot has forced me to take the entire week off from running and this is a disappointing setback to say the least. I am feeling better, I think, and then it tightens up again. It's undoubtedly the dreaded plantar fasciitis, a catchall term I know. In any case, I also came down with a nasty cold towards the end of the week and spent the weekend coaching little boys at their first basketball tournament while trying to stay awake, ethusiastic, upbeat and positive. It was rough.

Onto the next one...

Another Banner Week

It's the end of the last full week of the year, and with it I am almost through my second month of (almost) daily running. My goal, as stated previously, is to finally build a proper base by trying my best to hit 100km every week or so. I recognize that this is not an easy task for someone who tends to suffer overuse injuries, but at the same time it is not that outrageous to think that, if I am smart going about it, I can achieve both this goal and with it the accompanying benefits in my running overall.

So, with the power outage that we were subject to for the first couple of days of this past week my plans as far as running goes were in serious danger of getting derailed. In amongst all the Christmas stress and prep I was not going to let myself down and miss any running, though with a bit of a cold and a very sore throat I found it difficult at times to get out the door. Also, I had to hit the treadmill a couple of times because I simply had no hot water to shower with at home on account of the power outage that started the week and it was very cold outside.

The week started off with a ten miler on the old hamster wheel, then it was all I could do to manage 12km each day the rest of the week until the weekend. The final run, my usual 20km effort, was the toughest by far as I had a very tough time dragging my ass out of bed and was suffering from very low energy. But, in the end, I toughed it out and hit my mileage goal for yet another week.

The total for the week was 100.25km (62.3 miles) on 8hr50m57s of running. I'm up to 433.4km for the month on 30 runs over 29 days. I haven't checked, but I'm sure that blows my previous monthly total record out of the water. Guess that's what running daily will do!

• Monday: 16km (treadmill), 1:23:10, 5:10/km, 140bpm (at least the gym had power)
• Tuesday: 12km (treadmill), 1:00:11, 5:00/km, 145bpm (progression run of sorts to ease the boredom)
• Wednesday: 12km, 1:08:09, 5:41/km, 139bpm (sore throat, slippery and sloppy, snowing out...)
• Thursday: 12km, 1:01:09, 5:06/km, 144bpm (felt better and better as I ran, but throat still very sore)
• Friday: 13km, 1:07:12, 5:10/km, 146bpm (low on energy, slippery out, but toughed out a decent run)
• Saturday: 15.1km, 1:25:01, 5:36/km, 136bpm (group run, stuck to the pace of another runner who was suffering a bit)
• Sunday: 20km, 1:46:04, 5:18/km, 137bpm (sidewalks a total disaster, energy really low, a tough run mentally as much as anything, surprised by averaged HR given how I felt)

Actively Waiting

Well, it hasn't been the best of breaks, that's for sure. I have not been running since I tweaked my left Achilles a couple of Fridays ago, but only in part due to the injury. That same day I acquired some sort of strange "intestinal infection" (doctor's diagnosis) that is still sort of working it's way through my system well over a week after the initial symptoms reared their ugly head (pun intended). I think it's the result of some poorly sanitized equipment in the CPR/AED re-certification course I attended on the Thursday just before I started feeling like crap (pun intended, again), but I have no way to prove it.

So, it continues to be a waiting game of sorts. My Achilles is feeling better, but not 100%. My gut, ditto. I think part of the problem with the former is that my calves and hamstrings are so tight that the injury will not fully heal until all of that relaxes a bit. With that in mind I am booked for a massage tomorrow and I'm hoping for some significant release. The latter issue? Well, that's a waiting game that simply requires patience. In the meantime, it's weight training and commuting by bike.

Owards and upwards! Hope this is the only hiccup for this marathon training cycle as I am certainly looking forward to getting back to running again.

The iPlod Shuffle

February brought with it almost perfect running weather, though I was not able to take advantage of it. The whole Winter's been perfect for running! We've had almost no snow, very little rain really, and temperatures above freezing more often than not. I picked the wrong time to be out of commission...

February also brought with it a bout of pneumonia that knocked me out for three weeks. It was crazy! If you have a choice I recommend strongly that you avoid whatever it is that causes this ailment, be it bacteria or virus. I was initially diagnosed with a viral throat infection and told to rest for a few days. After trying that the fevers and full on body chills were my reward and so it was back to the doctor again. This time the diagnosis was a bit more precise: a touch of ear infection, with a dash of strep throat, and a crop dusting of pneumonia. Heavy duty anti-biotics were prescribed and I was out of commission for a full week. It's not fun lying around in bed all day while goo keeps coming out of your lungs, let me tell ya...

That brings us to now. After three weeks of weakness, losing about 10lbs, and general malaise, I finally got back to the gym this past Monday. I took things really easy, but boy am I sore! I'm shocked how a bit of down time can leave me feeling like I haven't touched weights in years the day after a workout. Tuesday I managed what I thought was a really light leg workout. Well, my legs feel like they've completely atrophied and I am in so much pain. That being said, this little turn of events has lead to something unexpected...

But first, I will back up to relate that the massage therapist who I've been seeing weekly since last October has given me the green light to test my limits a little bit. I think he meant things like half lunges, exotic foods, and the like, but yours truly took it to mean TRY RUNNING!

What I did today cannot in any way, shape or form be characterized as running. More accurately it can be called "plodding" or "shuffling". I did this little test on a treadmill at the gym (where I went ostensibly to stretch because there was no way I could do any leg weights today). I walked two minutes, shuffled for three, walked for two, shuffled for three, until the clock read 20 minutes. Then I figured I should back off and proceeded to spend the next 20 minutes stretching. It remains to be seen how this foray into plodding will affect my groin injury. But an hour or so after the fact I don't feel anything that would set my alarms ablaze so things are looking promising. It wasn't anything to write home about (so that's why I'm typing it up here), but it was a start.

It's something, no?

Slowly, but Surely and Goodbye to Grete

Indeed, I am nowhere near 100% as far as health goes. My immune system, weakened by antibiotics, seems to be particularly susceptible to any and all nasty viruses or bacteria that about as the weather (in theory) warms up. Although we are not seeing anything resembling Spring-like temperatures, yours truly still got hammered with a cold virus.

As reported previously I did not manage a single run over the past weekend. For perhaps the first time ever I decided that caution better than filling in the training log with what would have amounted to nothing more than junk miles. Instead, I remained confined to my bedroom waiting for the cold to run its course.

Monday I still felt like crap, but given that it was from the neck up I made it to the gym at lunchtime for a decent, if unspectacular, leg workout. My heart rate was elevated, but I managed to push as much weight as I normally do so I called it a success.

Today I feel a little better. My head is stuffed up and I have a headache, but at least I'm not going through boxes of tissues at as alarming a rate. I made it to the gym for a good chest and arm workout followed by a spur of the moment run on the treadmill.

I had designs on taking my potential run outside in the evening, but the weather looks nasty as whatever is happening in Texas will be bringing tonnes of cold rain up to Toronto. Given my weakened state I decided that a controlled environment was preferred and so hit the human hamster wheel for a nice 10km run.

To cut the boredom I played a bit with the incline settings during this run. After a 5 minute warm up at 6.7mph (5:33/km) I upped the speed to 7.2mph (5:11/km) for another 5 minutes at 1% incline. I then raised the incline to 2% for 5 minutes, 3% for 5 minutes, and 4% for 5 minutes.

From that point on I alternated 5 minutes at 1% incline with 5 minutes at 4% incline until I finished the run in 52:10 for an average pace of 5:12/km (8:23/mile). Not too bad given how I was feeling. It was nice to throw in some simulated hills as it provided a decent challenge and broke up the boredom a bit. Watching the old Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror" with closed captioning was somewhat entertaining as well. I think it was one of the best episodes they made if only for the goatee on Mr. Spock in the parallel Universe...

Nasty Sulu hitting on Uhura was also amusing.

And on a more sombre note I was surprisingly affected by the news of the passing of Grete Waitz today at the age of 57. I was not even aware of the existence of the New York City Marathon at the time when she dominated the race, but her impact on the sport, in particular for women, is immeasurable. She will be missed. Perhaps it is the timing of this sad news coming the day after the fastest marathon in history, and a real celebration of the sport in both the men's and women's races in Boston (Desiree Davila's runner up finish was a terrific surprise given all the hype around Kara Goucher!), that makes her passing so moving.

No Running This Weekend

I came down with a cold on Friday evening that seems to be rather nasty. At first I thought it was a recurrence of the strep throat I battled in March, but now I'm happy that at least it's nothing that serious. However, I'd only be putting in mileage to add to the training log in this condition and not doing myself any good so I've decided that rest is the way to go.

Plus, it's frigging snowing out there right now! April showers my ass...

Man, That Sucked!

Last week was, in a boring word, forgettable. I not only came down with strep throat, but then to add insult to injury had an allergic reaction to the medication! For four straight days I had no sleep, very little food, and almost no water. It left me cranky, irritable, and completely dehydrated. You know you're in trouble when your piss looks like Guiness...

But I am happy to report that I am on the other side of this little debacle. Although I'm still on drugs my throat has stopped seizing up and I am now able to eat, drink, AND sleep. Life be good.

On Saturday I even hit the streets for a little jog. It was pretty good, all things considered, although very short at a measly 5km. In a past life I would have tried running a heck of a lot more, but I am wiser now and won't try to "make up for lost time".

On Sunday it was time for a "long" run. Keeping it short I jogged through the first 11k nice and easy. Everything was going great until all that dehydration finally caught up to me and first my left calf, then my right one, started to tighten up. I stopped a few times to stretch it out, and then hobbled the rest of the way as gingerly as I could to complete the 16km run.

I'd finally managed to find a retailer in Canada that sold the Trigger Point "The Grid" and, having special ordered it, I had picked it up on Saturday. The timing could not have been better as I spent the rest of the day rolling my calves (or playing soccer with the littlest one in the park). I was nicely distracted from the pain by some great March Madness finishes (kudos to Butler for knocking off the first Number 1 seed this year!) and decent tennis at Indian Wells where the seemingly unbeatable Rafael Nadal went down to Novak Djokovic, who should really transfer his citizenship to Djibouti if you ask me.

Anyway, the week's worth of "running" was a paltry 21km, the lowest mark for me in a long long time. Now less than a week away from the Around the Bay 30k, which will most definitely be a training jog at best given all that's gone down, I am in full rehydration mode.

Happy Monday everyone! Hope your first full week of Spring goes well.

Missing In Action: Sick as a Dog

It hit me, I went running anyway, and then it decided that I was a dumbass and hit me harder. What is "it"?

Why, strep throat of course!

Last Saturday, as I scoured the city for a 10th Anniversary gift for my lovely wife with my older son in tow, I started feeling a bit of a tickle in the back of my throat. No big deal. I had gone on a 10km run that morning and things were fine as far as I was concerned.

Sunday morning came and it hurt to swallow. I didn't run in the morning because I felt like crap. Instead, I drove the boys across town to my Dad's, came home and then went out for a nice 16.5km run. There was little that was nice about it. In fact, it was crap. I felt like death in the second half and by the time I got home I knew I'd come down with something that I should not have been trying to run through. The whole "from the neck up" thing is total BS in the case of strep.

After a shower I lay down in bed and proceeded to occupy that space which exists somewhere between consciousness and deep sleep. I couldn't move, I felt cold and hot at the same time, and things were deteriorating rapidly as far as the throat was concerned. By that evening swallowing anything was pure agony.

So, on Monday morning, the wife and I went off to the Doctor's office to get a confirmation on what we already suspected was happening. Indeed, we both had strep throat, but the Doctor said that I won since mine was much more spectacular. Yay for me...

I was so glad to have Monica with me since I could not utter a word to the Doctor and managed a few whispers here and there. Those were mostly of the unhelpful joke variety like when Monica asked if she could go to work that day and the Doctor asked what she did for a living and I interjected that she was a "professional kisser". Hahaha. So stupid...

Anyway, I told that Doctor that I might be allergic to Penicillin given that I'd always been told I'd had a reaction to it back when I was a kid after my appendectomy. The Doctor muttered something about the next best alternative being sold out all over the place because so many people were getting hit with strep and so she prescribed something else. In my past experiences with strep once you get on the antibiotics your condition improves rapidly so I was hopeful that I would be back on the mend within the next 24hrs.

It was not to be. Although my throat slowly (painfully so) started feeling better I had an allergic reaction to the meds. This manifested itself in the form of an itchy rash (gross, I know) and a really weird thing: the palms of my hands and bottoms of my feet became super sensitive to heat! It was ridiculous!!! Taking a shower with barely lukewarm water felt like someone was pouring water straight out of a boiling hot kettle onto my hands!

On Wednesday it was back to the Doctor's to check and see if it was OK for me to keep taking the meds. The answer quickly came back "No!" and I am now on some super antibiotic that is reserved for patients with severe pneumonia! Let's hope that this stuff doesn't kill me...

Oh yeah, the other thing is that everything I put in my mouth tastes like chalk. Not pleasant at all, but at least my throat has opened up for the most part and swallowing now is just a mildly unpleasant experience, not the impossible task that I'd faced for a few days there.

And lastly, from Saturday night until Wednesday night I maybe got one hour of sleep in total. Every time I had to swallow the pain was so severe that I was never able to actually fall asleep. On top of that, as you can imagine, my diet suffered badly. I ate very little and that which I WAS able to get down was either in the form of chicken broth or ice cream. I also became very dehydrated. Not exactly the best way to prepare for a 30k race that is now only 9 days away!

I may not run the thing. Very disappointing...

Miserable Cold!

This friggin' cold can just go ahead and kiss it, as far as I'm concerned. The week so far has been dominated by the virus. I stayed home from work on Monday and Tuesday trying to keep warm while using up every tissue I could find. By Wednesday the nose faucet had been converted to a pipe full of cement and I made it into work only because I had a Doctor's appointment (on an unrelated matter) in the morning and I figured if I'm up to making it to that I should be up for going to work. It was NOT fun, but I did go and run 8km on the treadmill at lunch. Actually, the running was just an excuse to be able to use the shower.

Thursday was a non-running day, as usual, but once again I felt like crap. This time the excuse to use the shower came in the form of leg weights.

And today I can safely say that I feel a little bit better. My sinus pressure headache is still there and I continue to jettison stuff out of my head that looks like florescent green toxic waste (with tremendous effort, I might add, which doubles as an ab workout), but I did mange to sleep through the night for the first time this week! I even got up early enough for a short 5km recovery run before work.

Then, at lunch, I used the treadmill as another excuse to visit the showers and ran 8km. I felt a bit drained and started to overheat in the middle, but it got done. The first 5 minutes were at 6.7mph (5:34/km, 8:57/mile) and the rest was at 7.6mph (4:54/km, 7:54/mile) for a total of 40:04 of treadmilling. Given the way I've been feeling that should be considered a fantastic effort.

Now excuse me while I try and find another excuse to visit a hot shower pronto...

Oh yeah, with my runs today I snuck up over 200km for the month of January! I think that's great, especially given that I've missed three or four training runs this month due to injury (right calf) and illness (miserable cold!).

Cold Squared

This weekend has been spent watching Owen play in his second ever basketball tournament and driving a fair distance to the games, and catching things that are not desirable under any circumstances. After we got home on Saturday afternoon I went out for what ended up being a decent 5km recovery run that felt better than a recovery run ever should as I was able to maintain a much faster pace than I thought I could. Things were looking up, or so I thought.

Later, while thick snow was blanketing the City yet again, I came down with a serious case of the cold virus that kept me up half the night and left my nose looking not unlike Rocky Balboa's face at the end of Rocky II. In a word: tenderized.

Sunday morning was spent watching more basketball while trying to stay awake and keep the snot to a minimum. I succeeded on the first, failed miserably on the second. By the time we were driving home I thought that there would be no chance in Hell that I would get my long run in.

However, I decided to start getting ready anyway in a "just see how things go" kind of mentality. It was really cold out (heir go the squaring of the cold in the title of this post). -15C without the windchill factor, and I don't even want to know what it was when the wind was blowing. At least it was really Sunny out.

I decided to carry my cell phone and run close to the Subway line, just in case. As I started off I was really surprised to find the running was rather easier than anticipated. In fact, it was not until the second half of the run, when I was starting to fatigue a bit and was running directly into the wind that seemed to always be in my face no matter what direction I chose. Anyway, I managed to run the same distance as last weekend and did it even faster! 22km in 1:50:32 for an average pace of 5:01/km, and really the bulk of the run was under the 5:00/km barrier since my first split was the slowest of the day at 5:33/km (4:59.4/km by my calculations). I took note at the HM mark that I managed that distance in a fairly speedy (for me) 1:46:10, especially for a training run.

After the run I quickly got into a hot bath and tried to keep my body as warm as possible. It was the hottest water that I could stand, but even so I was not able to get really warm. By the time I got out I was already chilled to the core and have been sneezing like crazy ever since. I'm just hoping that this virus runs its course quickly. Next week, mercifully, is a recovery week and I guess it couldn't have come at a better time.

My weekly mileage broke the 60km mark for the first time since last September, and that is a very good thing. Also a good thing, my calf did not bother me one bit on the entire run.

On to the last week of January...

It's Getting Better All The Time?

Yesterday morning I was still feeling like crap, but felt like I had to try and do some running no matter what. Even a little bit would be better than sitting on my ass for another day. I thought that maybe I could shake whatever has been ailing me with some exercise and so I headed out for an early morning run of 5km just to see how things would feel.

The answer? Not good. My chest was full of goo and I had trouble breathing, my right heal still hurts despite the time off since Sunday, and both my Achilles tendons felt like they would snap at any moment. All creaky. At least the last kilometre felt better than the first, though it couldn't have felt much worse.

At the moment, now just three days away from the marathon, I am simply hoping for the best. I have been unable to eat much of anything of substance over the past few days and that may be the biggest problem come race day. I am back at work at least and will try to go for another short run tomorrow morning. It's disappointing, but there is nothing I can do about it now. It's almost go time, and everything I've done leading up to this point should get me to the finish line.

And I received my Bib# by email last night! 2922! Hope it's a lucky number. It's also cool that there will be splits at the 10km, 21.1km, and 30km marks. Those are meaningful distances, unlike the 8.6km split that they had at the half marathon I ran back in Ottawa at the end of May.

Good Timing or Bad Timing?

I have been training since last November for the privilege of testing myself against the marathon distance on this coming Sunday. In that span I can't remember more than once being sick, and so this makes it twice. A remarkable span of good health for me, but the timing is more than a little disappointing. I suppose it's better that I caught this cold the weekend before the race and not the weekend of, but I do feel like my body has let me down somewhat. I am very weak and have been confined to staying at home for two days. Breathing is tough, throat hurts, trouble sleeping, and blacking out just walking up the stairs. How on earth am I supposed to run 42.2km?!

This past Sunday, the day after I started feeling "off", I ran my last long training run prior to the race. It wasn't exactly long or anything, but it was to be a bit of a test of marathon pace. Instead it became a test of will. If anything it left me a bit skeptical as to the pace that I could possibly sustain for the race and has me revising my goals somewhat. The 14km was not altogether slow, but my heart rate was very elevated and everything felt laboured; not fun.

If I don't regain my strength in the next day or so and get in one more decent run before Sunday I may just go into the race with a shuffle.

Short and Sick

This week was "recovery", though I feel more worn out at the end than what I felt like when it started. I didn't miss any training runs, but I did contract my first cold of 2010 that forced me to stay home on Friday and continues to rage here on Sunday.

To recap the running, on Wednesday I ran 5.8km to work and another 7.2km back home for a total of 13km on the day. It was nice and easy and the run home was pretty quick.

Then on Thursday the cold started and by the afternoon I felt like a big sack of poop. I slept very poorly and by Friday morning was so achy that I decided to stay home. Although it was meant to be a rest day I was called into a teleconference and that perked me up enough (not necessarily in a good way) that I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and went out at noon for a nice 12km. It felt way better than it should have.

Saturday was spent at my son's first baseball tournament of the season, with your truly struggling throughout to coach. We got up at 5:30am and didn't make it back home until 8:30pm. I was totally bushed.

This morning was a really late start. By the time I dragged myself out of bed it was already +20C and humid. I grabbed a bottle of Gatorade and tried not to think about the run that was to come. In the end I really struggled through a slow and hot 15km and finished the recovery week with a total of 40km.

One week from today I will be in Ottawa running my first half marathon. I really hope this cold is long gone by then and that I have some semblance of energy for the race.

Cold in the Head

Last night was supposed to be an evening spent doing push ups and sit ups, but I was not up for it. Seems that I've contracted another cold - nothing serious, but I had absolutely no energy at all. It's hard to listen to your body when your ears are (or at least feel like they are) clogged, but I did the best I could and went to bed early. I think it's all that public transit I've been forced to use recently on account of the snow and my bike being on the fritz. At least now I'm giving back what I've been given as I stuff myself onto the subway train mere inches from all sorts of seemingly healthy bipeds.

Today I woke up feeling not so great, but good enough to go to work and fit in a swim at lunch (and continue to spread the love via public transit). I was going in with a plan to swim 1500m, but also would cut it short if I started sucking chlorinated water. In the end I did do 1500m - 5X200m on 3:00, 5X100m on 1:40. As an added bonus, the water cleared my sinuses a bit. No such luck with my general snottiness clearing out the slow arsed swimmers from my lane though...

Perhaps tonight I will feel up to doing some other exercise related stuff, but I'm not counting on it. I am planning an easy 5K tomorrow and don't want to miss that.

The Lost Weekend

Man, it's been a hell of a last few days... After a Saturday spent shopping, putting up the Christmas tree, then more shopping I began to feel sick. Yup, the stomach virus was not going to pass me by and I felt more and more nauseous as the night progressed. By 1:30am I was praying for the inevitable resolution, but my stomach would not oblige. It wasn't until 5:30am Sunday, and after I had completely drained the hot water tank of it's contents while sitting in the shower, did my body cry "Uncle!" and let me puke my guts out.

Suffice it to say I've been less than active over the last couple of days, but am well enough today to get to work and (hopefully) get some last minute Christmas stuff done. My 100 push up attempt may go tonight, but I feel pretty weak and have lost about 7lbs as a result of not being able to eat much of anything for a while. We'll see what happens...

Aftershock

The stomach flu, it seems, has not finished running it's course. Malcolm was sick in the middle of the night and I spent the day with the poor little guy at home. On top of all that his cheek started to get really red and inflamed, hot to the touch, which meant only one thing to us: infection. Off we went to the doctor and sure enough that's what it was. Now he is on antibiotics for the first time in his life and I hope he doesn't have any adverse reaction to the medication. A long time ago when Owen was on antibiotics for an ear infection his whole personality changed while taking the drugs, and that was a bit weird to witness for us first time (at that time) parents.

Anyway, Malcolm seems to have rebounded quickly and he was good enough to go to his Junior Kindergarten Christmas concert. It was so cute, and I managed to take some video clips which I will post here at some point.

Before going to the concert I managed another Week 6 Day 2 routine of the hundred push ups challenge. I did 22-22-30-30-24-24-18-18 and then maxed out at 70 for a total of 258. The max set included Malcolm climbing onto my back at the 40 push up mark, which forced me to put my knee down and get him off, so 70 was a good surprise given all that.

Foot still hurts, and I think this tendinitis, plantar fasciitis thing is just going to take a while to heal. Damn!

The Battle Continues

Well, my little family continues to battle the flu as now my wife has come down hard with the illness. At least the boys, on better the other yet to get hit (and hopefully not at all), were able to go to school today.

The other battle is the one concerned with keeping this blog going while waiting to run. Last week it seemed like the foot had taken a turn for the better, but after the weekend of walking, skating, shopping, and other activities involving moving boxes of books up and down stairs it seems to still be hanging around like an unwelcome foul odor. Three weeks and counting...

That is pretty much why I've taken to push ups and chin ups - my physiological and psychological sanity. I am redoing the same sets as last week once more and tonight I went through the Week 6 Day 1 routine (45-55-35-30) and then maxed out at 60 for a total of 225. Tonight was tough going, managing only 60 and all, but I still think the 100 is well in sight. (I think the flu going through the house has something to do with it...) The bigger challenge will be to keep up with the push ups afterwards, and perhaps that is the real reason why I am putting off the attempt at 100 in a row until next week. Anybody out there who completed the challenge find it easy or hard to continue doing push ups? Or did you just stop cold turkey?

Going through the house...

Yes, the flu seems to be taking a turn at our place this week. Over the last few days I've been feeling a bit under the weather. Not totally sick, but on the cusp so to speak. Perhaps the flu shot I got in November is helping to minimize the symptoms, but Owen was not so lucky. At about 3am he started vomiting.

Lovely, I know. Short story: I stayed home with him today and we had a great time together, as much as we could. One highlight was a rare afternoon nap for me!

I still decided that doing Week 6 Day 3 of the hundred push ups plan was a good idea, and so I did. 26-26-33-33-26-26-22-22 went the preliminaries, and then I maxed out at a surprising 75 for a total of 289. I think I will redo Week 6 again before attempting the 100.

And now, for sleep.

Sick in bed

Yes, I've been off the blog for a few days, having caught a nasty cold. I managed a half-day at work on Friday, tied up some loose ends, cancelled some afternoon meetings, then spent the rest of the afternoon in bed. Saturday, ditto. Now it is Sunday afternoon and I've been in bed all day yet again, though I seem to finally be coming out of it. Whatever this bug was, it was strong, that's for sure.

At least the foot got some more rest, not that I planned on running this weekend anyway, wanting to give it at least a full week after the race to recover. I have another treatment with the doctor tomorrow morning, and I am sort of planning to go for a 5k or so jog tomorrow evening if the foot feels up to it. At the moment I think it should be OK.

Given the fact that I've gotten nothing accomplished in the last couple of days, that's all I have for now.

A Little Worn Down

Yes, it's true. I am feeling worn down today, and as such am making the executive decision to not go to the gym for weights this evening. I spent the day at a privacy and access to information conference, but did manage to sneak out for a swim at lunch. I wasn't planning to do this, but just felt like it and took off, and boy am I glad that I did given how I am feeling tonight. It's awesome to have everything in a locker at the UofT pool so that I can make a spur of the moment decision like this and not have to plan to go and bring all the swimming stuff along with me all over the city.

The swim was great. I jumped in and swam 2000m non-stop in a little under 30 minutes. The shoulders are definitely stronger and I could have kept going for at least another kilometre, but had to get back to the conference.

Now, I am back home, kids are asleep, and the cold I caught this weekend is lingering. The foot is feeling tighter than I would like it to feel, and it definitely feels like plantar fasciitis. I've had it before and hope that rest, ice, heat, and some massage helps this to heal enough to let me train a bit more on the way to the 10k on October 26th. Anyone else dealt with this problem? I'll take all and any advice, home remedies, mysticism, prayers, whatever you've got to get this to get better fast.

In happy news, my manager (who is quite possibly the most normal, sane, and nice person I've ever had to work for) told me I could go watch Owen race tomorrow morning and show up at the conference a bit late! He watched his kids race this morning, and I'm so excited to see Owen race tomorrow morning. It should be awesome, and when I told him I'd be able to go he was very excited. I hope he has a great time and is left with many happy memories from his first running competition. I'll do the proud Dad report tomorrow on how it went, of course.