BOOM!

Nearly two weeks ago (on a Monday), everything seemed pretty normal. I had a bit of a sore throat, but was in complete denial that I could possibly be getting sick. I tend to stick with the “if I pretend I’m not getting sick, I won’t get sick” mentality when I feel a bit of a scratch in my throat or stuffiness in my head, and usually, that tends to work and I don’t actually succumb to the bug.

Kelly and I met at lunch that day and discussed the fact that I haven’t felt much desire to race or any real competitiveness lately, and so we came up with a few ways to get that fire lit and planned out some of the races that I will do between now and IM CdA.

We talked about how training would play out over the next few weeks and about an upcoming trip down to Coeur d’Alene that Shane and I had planned for that coming weekend.

I left our little get together feeling a bit more energized and not at all worried about my scratchy throat. All seemed good.

That night my parents delivered some pretty unexpected and fairly life changing news. News, that two weeks later I’m still processing. Emotionally, some days are good. Some days are not so good, and on those not so good days, there is a slight guilt for not being stronger (hard to explain). What I am sure of, is that there will be a positive outcome. Anyway, I always hate on blogs when people vaguely reference stuff that is happening in their lives, but then don't give details (I’m nosy) but, at the end of the day, this is not my story to tell, so I’m going to leave it at that for now. My blog, my rules.

What I can say is… BOOM!

Mix in some emotional stress, and that little tickle in my throat transformed into a full on body-shut-down, can’t-get-out-of-bed, kinda cold. Fun stuff. Anyway, that has meant that over the last couple of weeks training has been pretty eff’d up and mostly non-existent.

I spent a couple days in bed with absolutely no desire to do anything but blow my nose and watch trash TV. I thought things were getting better and so I made my return to work for one day before heading down to Coeur d’Alene.

The trip had already been planned (with another friend) and the time off from work was already booked, so we decided it was best to still go – and I was feeling better (for the most part) so thought the worst of the sickness was behind me.

On Saturday, we rode the bike course. We had wanted to do a full 180km, but after the first loop, I was coughing a lot and my chest was getting pretty raspy. Shane wasn’t feeling super hot either, and the wind was absolutely INSANE, so we decided to do one more loop of the small out and back section and then called it – for a total of 110km on the day.

[Side note: Does anyone know, is it always windy in Coeur d’Alene?]

It’s funny, because while we were riding, I felt great, but as the afternoon and evening wore on, I started to feel progressively worse. I was coughing a lot and my chest hurt.

Early Sunday morning I was woken from a dead sleep with some pretty intense pains in my chest and back (it was like all of the muscles in my torso were spasming and I couldn't get a really good breath). I tossed and turned for a couple hours before it was time to get up.

We had been planning to run one loop of the run course, but because of the weird chest pains, I wasn't sure how that would go and realized it probably wasn't super beneficial to run myself into the ground.

My new plan: start the run and see how it goes. Walk if I have to.

So, that's what I did. I struggled through about 5km before deciding I wasn't doing myself any good. At that point, I stopped and walked (on the course) for about an hour while the guys carried on and completed the out and back. Once they got back to me, I ran the final 4-5km with them back to the car. It wasn't ideal, but at least I still got to see the course and take in the beauty of it all. Also, we didn't get rained on, so that was a definite plus.

Anyway, the trip turned into more of a sightseeing getaway and course recon than the big training weekend I had originally hoped for, but it was still amazingly worthwhile and I’m so happy to have been able to see the course and the town – we even got to check out the house we will be renting while down there, so that was a huge bonus.

Upon our return I was feeling a bit crappy again, so I talked with Kelly and we decided a few more days off was probably my best option before easing myself back up to the our regular volume. So, this week I’ve swam once, run once and am planning to hit the bike for an easy spin tonight before tackling a bit of a larger weekend.

My body is responding well, and although I’m still a bit raspy and still cough up the odd chunk of lung gunk, I’m hopeful that by next week this little blip on the training map will be behind me.

FINGERS CROSSED.

#100happydays

Day 23

Napping on the deck in the sunshine. One bonus to being sick on a nice day.

  Day 24

Bridesmaid dresses selected and ordered.

 Day 25

Sunset from our bedroom window.

Day 26

Testing out Shane's new neoprene swim cap upon our arrival in CdA.

Day 27

Chilling with Mudgie and Millie.

Day 28

Solitude while walking the run course.

Day 29

The way Rusty stretched and then fell asleep in that position cracked me up.

 Day 30

Awesome.

Day 31

Morning snuggles. He loves my harassment.

Day 32

Celebrating Mom's birthday.

Day 33

Impulse buy - some sweet little kicks for my best friend's new bambino.