Running hiatus.

Unfortunately I have nothing good to blog about related to running because...we haven't been running.  After our awesome 16 miler in Pittsburgh last weekend it was a short 3.5 day work week for us as we had another wedding (that Brad was in).  We were on the road yet again on Thursday afternoon....headed back to Pittsburgh for weekend #2.  Mid-week I started coming down with that dreadful feeling when you know a cold is coming on.  By Thursday night as we were on the train headed to Pitt I could feel the sore throat and cold start to hit.  Our initial long run plan was to wake up early on Friday morning for our 17-miler, rest during the day, head to our friend's rehearsal dinner that night and feel great the rest of the weekend knowing that our long run was out of the way.  Unfortunately that didn't happen.  Apparently from what I hear from other runners who train this long, a cold and a slight deviation from the training plan is pretty normal so I guess it's a good thing we are getting it out of the way now instead of a month from now, right?

We hit the local trail near Brad's parent's house on Friday morning, which was 3.2 miles up and back.  We ran it 2 times and not only is the trail extremely hilly, but I had very low energy while running and knew I couldn't do much more.  My body felt fatigued and mentally I didn't have it in me to run more.  We left the trail and headed to Brad's nearby high school and did a few laps around the track before calling it quits.  What was supposed to be 17 miles ended up being 7.   The weekend is now over and as we approach a new week unfortunately I haven't turned the corner yet, still feeling rather crappy with a sore throat and cough and have inevitably passed it onto Brad.   Knowing how much more hardcore he is than me, he will probably be back in the saddle sooner than me, but for now we're both feeling like shit.

I've mentioned before but I hate missing runs.  I know my body won't get out of shape by missing a few runs, but knowing that I've missed a long run makes me nervous...especially as I get so much closer to the big race day.  I'm hoping by Tuesday I will start feeling 100% and can tie up my laces again soon.  The last thing I want to do is get worse, so I'm going to rest until I'm close to feeling completely better.

As a random side note, while I was on the train headed to Pittsburgh I was surrounded by other runners and bikers who were discussing races and training.  I got into a discussion with a 30-something man who was giving me some first-time marathon tips.  He was being very honest and was providing me with all kinds of feedback both positive and negative.  He said after he ran his first marathon he couldn't walk for about a week.  {Awesome}.  He told me to pace myself.  He said you can get easily pumped up at the start of the race and it's easy to go fast in the beginning with all of the spectators cheering you on.  Make sure to keep going slow, I reminded myself.  That shouldn't be much of a problem, as I am training VERY slow as is!   He also said finishing the marathon was one of his biggest accomplishments and it can become very addicting.  We'll see about that... :)

On that note, I'm sitting on the Megabus right now as I type and I can feel the Nyquil start to kick in so I am going to wrap up. Hopefully in a few days I'll have turned the corner and be running again and have better stories to blog about.

Until then, here's to staying healthy!