I know I haven’t posted in a pretty long time, but it’s been a really, really long past month. So to catch you all up, after my last post things started turning around and were actually going very well. I got my legs back under me, I was feeling good, I was fit, and I was ready to drop some really good times in my upcoming races. It looked like all that summer training I did was finally going to pay off. I should learn by now that things never go according to plan. About a month ago, probably because the universe simply likes playing cruel jokes on me, I got sick. It started off pretty unassuming, just the usual cold symptoms for the first week, but then it decided to turn into good old bronchitis. Knock-you-down-in-bed-unable-to-breath for 3+ weeks bronchitis.
It knocked me out bad. When I wasn’t in class or at work I was in bed out cold. I was constantly tired and it felt like Superman and Doomsday were having a slugfest in my lungs. Needless to say, breathing was not an enjoyable task. Running became impossible. I tried to run here and there, but every time I would make it a mile or less of old man shuffle before having to stop and would heave up my lungs for the next twenty minutes. Nothing hurt more than going to practices and watching everyone else be able to train and push while I was getting winded walking up a flight up steps. It reached a climax at the RedStorm 5k, a race here on the St. John’s campus. I’ve run this race and finished on the podium the past 2 years, so while I knew that it was stupid to race, I had to do it. I immediatly regretted that decision. I went through the first mile in a usually easy 6:00, which of course felt like a sprint, and then fell apart over the last 2 miles. I didn’t catch my splits but I’m pretty sure my last mile was somewhere near 8:00 pace. I ended up finishing in 20:21 in fourth place, which is my worst time in a 5k in seven years. I also spent the next 15 minutes after the race curled up on the pole vault mat completely unable to breathe or speak. Fun stuff. I took the next week 100% off after that. The only plus to this was that I totally would have won best dressed if there had been an award for that with my tuxedo singlet, American flag split shorts, and The Flash knee high socks.
I looked legit.
Things finally started looking up about a week ago however. After a weekend back home in fresh air while starting a new medicine, my lungs started to clear up. Breathing steadily got easier over the next few days leading into us traveling to Ohio for the Big East XC championships. The first day there in Ohio, we went to a park near the hotel, and while the girls were off running, I thought I would try doing a little bit as well on my own. I put on my best hobby jogger impression with basketball shorts, a hoodie, and my phone in an armband with headphones, and proceeded to push out a solid, albeit painful, four miles. While the pace was slow, I still made it the distance with very little coughing. I was pumped. To get back into the routine, I pushed out slow three milers the next two days, before really testing myself on Sunday. I went into Manhattan to watch the NYC Marathon without plan to run all that much, which of course turned into seven miles of running to and from different points on the course cheering for people and meeting up with friends. Again while slow, it was a huge confidence boost just to make it that far. I’m actually pretty happy with how quickly Im shaking off the rust, knocking out four on Monday and then five the past two days, all while steadily bringing down the pace back under 7:30/mile again, a solid improvement over those first few runs.
While getting back to where I was won’t be easy, knowing that I have previously come back from much worse leaves me confident that this was just a speed bump and not a brick wall in my training. Now it’s just about steadily building my fitness back up over the next couple of weeks back to where I was pre-getting sick. Also in my usual trying to find the silver lining in things attitude, I guess this little break also gave me a chance to reevaluate where I want to go with my running. I’ll admit that over the summer and throughout the beginning of this school year Ive been pretty conflicted with what I want to run. Part of me wanted to fit along with the standard 5k/8k XC->3k Indoors->3k/5k Outdoors school schedule like being on a real team, but honestly it might be time to accept that I’m on my own and my heart just isn’t into that kind of schedule. What I really want to do is road races. 10k, 15k, half-marathon, marathon, those kind of races. That’s the racing I’m really in love with. It’s a big change to what I’ve done the past decade of running, but I think it’s the right step to progress my running career. Granted this means I will also finally have a certain blue and orange change coming to my training as well, but that’ll deserve its own blog post when it happens. I’ll still do some track races here and there, but it’s the roads where I really see myself having success and simply enjoying running more. Now just to avoid getting sick and injured. Again.
Run John Run! 