Days 191 - 199: Baby, it's cold outside!

Wow, super blog fail this week. Sorry.

Monday: yoga. Tuesday: 6 a.m. yoga (I'm addicted... I wish I could get up that early every day because it's such a great way to get started, but by the end of the week I need sleep) and 8.5 miles on the treadmill because it rained ALL day. I used it as a chance for speed work--mile repeats increasing from 10 min/mile with 0.2 mi recoveries. It was a hard workout, definitely. Wednesday: belly dancing times two: walk-in and work-out, and the Upgrade U class. Walk-in and work-out was HARDCORE... my abs and thighs were super tired, but felt amazing. We finally started learning choreography to our dance in the Upgrade U class. Just the intro. I feel a little silly, but mostly it's just fun.

Then... Thursday happened. I was feeling a little under the weather all week, but chalked it up to a case of the sniffles. By Thursday, my throat was on fire, and I was incredibly congested. Combined with the fact that the temperature had started to drop significantly, I decided to take a rest day, with plans of running Friday. But Friday I woke up and couldn't even open my eyes. My face was so swollen, and I had no voice whatsoever. So I took rest day number 2. Saturday I could move again, but with 22 miles looming in front of me, I decided to take it easy again and just did some cleaning and got the apartment festively decorated for Christmas (more work than you might think, actually, so I don't feel too guilty).

Sunday I was down to a little sniffle, and despite the fact that it was snowing as I put out Gatorade along our route, I decided to go for the 22 mile run with Chris. It was chilly and overcast (but the snow stopped, thank goodness), but we bundled up and had a really great start. The first 10.5 flew by much faster than we expected. For some reason, though, when the sun came out and it got later in the afternoon, it actually started to get colder. We were definitely fighting some cramping. Just after mile 17, Chris pulled something in his knee... his turn for injury, I guess. We ran a little bit more, and then ended up just walking about the last 5 miles. My Garmin's battery died at 19.5 miles (I knew I should have charged it the night before...), but given where we were when it died, I'm certain we finished somewhere between 21 and 22. We actually ended up finishing in about 5 hours and 15 - 20 minutes, which isn't too bad with the walking. And the main point is that we kept moving and kept on our feet for that whole time. We're not going for time, we're just going to finish, and we have 7 hours to do it, so as long as we can keep moving for that whole 26.2 miles, we should be ok.

I'm especially inspired recently because I got a peek at the elevation chart for the Disney marathon. The first 15 miles are FLAT. I've never seen an elevation chart that looks like that. It's crazy. Then there's a few gentle hills. Mile 19 is entirely uphill, but I don't think it will actually be that steep. But after mile 20, it's flat again. Glorious. That's why I think we'll be just fine for the marathon. Hills are hard on your knees and your ankles and your lungs and... ok, well, everything. But we'll have so many fewer. And we'll have the aide stations to keep us vigilant about hydration and walk breaks. So I think we're ok.

Anyway... a 22 mile run is never helpful for the immune system, so I was feeling very congested again yesterday. Yoga was out of the question, since the heat would make me uncomfortable, and I couldn't breathe through my nose at all. So I did some "yogalates" (yoga + pilates) at home... about an hour and 45 minutes total. I must have done something right because my abs are sore today.

It's too cold to run in the mornings right now, so I ran this afternoon while there was still some sun. Cold... upper 30s when I started... and the temperature dropped rapidly towards the end once the sun went away. I did a total of 7.6 miles. It's a rest week so technically I only needed to do 7, but I'm trying to atone for my weekend of laziness (even though it's really not my fault, I mean, I was sick, right?). I really hope it's not this cold in Orlando... when the temperature is so close to freezing I can feel my muscles tighten and my blood turning to icy sludge. Definitely slows me down.

I have more inspiration to write about, but I'm being hurried along, so I'll save that for later. Perhaps that means I'll have to post before Sunday.