sick | You Signed Up For What?!

I haven’t been running this week because of two things: 1. Time, and 2. The fact that this cough is still here. Still. I get a little paranoid about combining exercise + coughing since I once ran a half marathon with a cough and it turned out to be bronchitis. Or it turned into bronchitis, I’m not sure if the chicken or the egg came first. It was my first half marathon during training for my first marathon, and I ended up much, much worse than I probably would have been. But I did it – and it remains my best half marathon time at 2:05!

I did a Boot Camp class on Sunday, which was a great circuit-training type of workout, but the cough was acting up during and after the class. My legs are still sore from that class…

Today I did the Pilates class at work, and felt great. We ended with a plank challenge, and I was the last female standing, errrr planking, at 3 minutes. Two guys battled it out for first place after that. I have to work on beating the guys next time!

I have no idea how I might fit in exercise tomorrow – I have to get up at 5am for an early morning work event off-site. I’ll be running around all morning at the concert, so hopefully that will burn some calories!

It always happens. I finish a big event for work, a big international business trip, or a big race and BAM – I get sick. Finished all the training and ran the Nike Women’s Half Marathon on Sunday → cue the germs invading.

<cough, cough, wheeze, wheeze, sniffle, sniffle >

Sorry, I had to pause typing to cough up a lung.

I had a post-race workout plan this week – REALLY! – to go for a short run, hit the gym, and get to the pool for my first triathlon training swim. But my body had other plans. I started to feel pretty bad at work Tuesday (it didn’t help that I didn’t get home until 10pm due to an evening event), and woke up yesterday morning feeling awful.

I took my daughter to a doctor’s appointment only to find out it was canceled. Apparently they had left a message at 4pm the day before but I was at work until late at night. That’s not very much notice, anyhow! And it was with a specialist that is really hard to schedule with, adding more complications to my crazy May schedule.

And then the allergy doc called to confirm that my 16 month old definitely has that suspected peanut allergy, along with a low-level sunflower allergy to boot (we’ve known about that one for months). So I dragged myself from my bed to throw some things out from our pantry. My daughter has to say goodbye to her favorite sandwich: peanut butter, ham, & honey (yes, really!).

After that, I felt done. Done, done, done. It was not a great day to miss a day of work (is it ever in the arts?), so today, I dragged my coughing self in there to do two days’ work in one day.

So basically: feeling sick and run down + no workouts this week = irritated. So far, the only bright spots this week have been:

Bright Spot #1: Today I was down another pound. Maybe all that coughing was burning some calories. Only 5 pounds to go to reach my first goal weight, the technical top of my BMI range. See ya, baby weight, don’t let the door hit you on the way out!

Bright Spot #2: My 16 month old has started saying a few words! He’s been doing a little sign language for a while, but all of a sudden this week he’s uttering words (well, YOU might not think they were words if you heard him, but WE understand what he’s saying). Totally scrumptiously, deliciously cute.

Bright Spot #3: Time resting in bed yesterday gave me time to research triathlon training plans and read my new book, Triathlon for the Every Woman by Swim Bike Mom. So I’m motivated and ready to get started!

Any recommendations for a sprint triathlon training plan for a busy working mom? Any good tips for squeezing the training into crazy work weeks?