The running week that wasn't. But I'm ok with it.

Ok, I'm just gonna get this out of the way: I did not do my long run on sunday. In fact, last week overall was a total running fail.

That said, I did grind out a grueling four miles outside on saturday, in the cold, and the wind. It was windy enough that the return trip on my out and back was slow enough where at one point I was sure walking might be faster. I'm not sure what my actual pace was, because right after I finished my run, as I was hitting "save run" on my app, my phone died. So no record of the run saved.

I do know my lungs and legs were burning by the time I finished. It was a miserable run, but i keep telling myself, an awesome training run. I pushed myself and that's when the magic happens, right?

After that run, and a quick shower, we were off to take my daughter to an indoor "winter carnival" with my parents. So I spent another two hour-ish on my feet chasing an excited toddler. By the end of that I was starting to feel not so awesome, and I was coughing occasionally, which I chalked up to just irritation from the cold air on the run.

Sunday, I was dead tired in the morning at a work "brunch with santa", and the coughing was more prevalent, although I was still sure it was just irritation from the run. The brunch was awesome, although my daughter would have none of santa, bursting into tears and clinging desperately to my neck. Because I was so tired, I figured I'd rest and do the run later after I felt a little better.

By the end of the day though, I was more sure that I might actually be sick. When we got home from grocery shopping the cough was deeper, more in my chest than my throat, and I was bone tired. I even tried my trick of dressing in my running gear to try to pep myself up, but after having a coughing fit while climbing the stairs, I called it. A run, especially a long run, was not an option.

So I've missed my first planned long run. I missed two runs from my plan last week, so I'm repeating the week, and I'm letting it go. I feel surprisingly ok with this. I think part of it is that I redid my math on my training, and realized that I have (a little over) four months to add to my distance to reach my half marathon goal. That's 16 weeks. I've been adding a mile a week onto my distance runs. That would have me running 22 miles on my long runs before my half marathon. I can back off on that, or miss a week or repeat a few weeks without feeling any pressure. And I'm still really proud of finishing that run on saturday!

I'm still not sure if I'm actually sick or if I really just did that much of a number on myself running in the cold on saturday. I'm drinking tea with honey and trying to take it easy today. Hopefully that will be enough that by tomorrow (tuesday), I'm back in running shape.