RECAP : Sept 3 - Sept 9

--- Monday - 09/03/12 ---

OFF

Labor Day.  Felt pretty lousy as the afternoon wore on.  Definitely caught some sort of bug over the weekend. Zero energy, sore throat, muscle and joint aches, and felt like my head was under water. Ughh!


--- Tuesday - 09/04/12 ---

PM - easy running.  Ran 4 laps around Troutman park from home - 28 minutes

Started at about 8pm. super easy jogging on grass. Felt pretty lousy with this head cold.  Zero energy again. 
Worked a half day at work, came home and crashed.


--- Wednesday - 09/05/12 ---

OFF
  
Took the day off work and stayed home with Elli (who is still not 100% herself).  Napped for a little over 2 hours, during Elli's nap.  
Still feeling pretty lousy.  Stuffed up, zero energy -- just the thought of running 10 miles makes me want to curl up on the couch and sleep all day.  Not exactly how I want to feel 10 days before a 100 miler.
But I have 10 days to get back on the horse and back to a strong and healthy body.


--- Thursday - 09/06/12 ---

Pineridge - 34:02

My body wanted to skip this easy run, my brain wanted to get in some sort of a half-way pathetically easy run during the week.
Still not feeling well....60%, if I had to put a number on it.  
Lungs felt way too labored for this easy jog effort.
Chugging the vitamin C, sucking zinc lozenges, and pounding the day-quil --- all day today.    


--- Friday - 09/07/12 ---

OFF

Today is Andreas birthday and have a fun evening planned for us.  Took off the last few hours of work and slept for an hour or so before waking up and picking up Elli from daycare.
Feeling about 70% (at best).
Gone are the muscle aches and overall feeling of having my head under water, but the ridiculously low energy levels are still in full effect. Walking to and from our department break room from my office leaves me wanting to crash on a couch for a few hours.   
Took the day off from running and decided a well needed nap would be a better option based on my current health status.  And with the 100 miler being just exactly 1 week away, any extra training I get in from here on out will be far less important than the needed rest and recovery I need to be 100% when I toe the line next Friday.
Had my folks watch Elli for a few hours while I took Andrea out to a dinner and movie in the evening for her birthday.  Fun evening.
I think I downed about 15 Emergen-C  packets today.


--- Saturday - 09/08/12 ---

Pineridge - 1/2 lap through Pineridge - 32 minutes

My amazing wife let me sleep in this morning, while her and Elli spent the morning at the farmers market.  I got a solid 11 hours of sleep last night, plus an additional 2 hour nap in the afternoon during Ellis naptime.

Starting from the Dog park I ran a 1/2 lap around pineridge.  The extra rest this morning felt great!  
Felt better today, not 100% -- but spent this short run trying to get my legs back under me.  Easy effort all the way. 
.....almost there!


--- Sunday - 09/08/12 ---

Foothills Trail (short loop) - 33:50

First run in about a week that I started to feel better. Legs and energy felt good.  Still stuffed up, slighty congested.  Took some anti-histamine in the afternoon and that seemed to work.
Easy effort.

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Well, its not how I pictured it, but it is what it is.  I was planning on tapering but I wasnt planning on feeling like crud the entire week. I tried to ride the thin line of tapering and still getting in a handful of easy miles, with getting healthy and back to 100%. Ideally, I would have needed to take off the entire week I think to get back to full health sooner. But I still wanted to keep my legs moving a little and not allow too much time off. There is a fine line between healthy tapering and losing fitness and possibly even gain a couple of pounds with too much rest or complete down time.
Nonetheless, the week is behind me and my first 100 miler is right around the corner. Planning, preparation, and logistics for race day are in the works.

I will write up a race preview the day or two before the race and jot down some of my thoughts, ideas, concerns, predictions, goals.....etc  about running 100 miles through mountains (mostly).