Watch that flu bug....he'll knock you down!

Bottom Line: It HURT! Don't get what I had.

Let me start this post with some personal info. I stay out of hospitals unless someone I know, including me, has at least one foot in the grave. The hospital is the LAST place I want to be.  I also take pills about twice a year. That means there are two occasions each year when I will break down and take an ibuprofen, motrin, or some OTC thing like that.  I don't like taking meds because it's not natural to put that stuff in my body.

This past week was one of those occasions when I put meds in my body. The flu knocked me down for three full days! And that's not including the day I fought it off.

Monday: woke up early finally and got in a workout. During the bike trainer, it started to hurt a bit, so I backed off. Then at the pool, it hurt some more, so I backed off some more. Then while lifting weights...yeah, I backed off cuz it hurt more than expected.  I got to work, and ABSOLUTELY HURT all day. I chalked it up to some kind of good workout (yeah right! I backed off an easy day!).

Monday night: I woke up in the middle of the night because I was shaking/shivering uncontrollably. Couldn't warm up! Wifey got some hot tea, and that settled me down. Thirty minutes later had uncontrolled sweats. Thirty minutes later, uncontrolled shivering.....you get the idea how that went. I was wondering if I should be scared, and my wife was wondering how to get me to the hospital with two kids staying in their beds.

Tuesday: woke up at 7:58. Supposed to be at work at 8! Called in, said I might be there at 9. Wife woke me up at 8:56. Called in to say I would be gone all day. What was I thinking? Shivered and sweated all day. Took ibuprofen, some Nyquil stuff, and some cough drops. Hurt all day.

Tuesday night: slept in three hour spurts til the hot tea wore off and I woke up shaking. At least it was predictable!

Wednesday: still at home. shivering and sweating wore off a bit. Now the congestion and sore throat kick in. I can't talk at all.

Wednesday night: can't breathe at all cuz my nose and throat are completely congested.

Thursday: still at home. RAGING headache in the morning, and then I realize I haven't had coffee in two days because I was drinking tea. Three nice strong pots of coffee later (yeah, I'm a bit attached!) and head feels right at about 1pm. Still can't talk. No shivers or sweats, so I can at least kill time watching a movie.

Friday: back at work. sore throat a bit.

Saturday: Ski day! Not 100% but close enough.

Paul Yoga and a calf strain

 

The video above is Paul doing yoga. He's been able to do it for a while, but this is the first time we caught it on video. It's awesome!

I have a calf strain from Monday's run. The regular lunch run was going great; kind of fast even. Then my calf tightened up like it used to a couple years ago. I walked the last two miles, and it got tighter and tighter the rest of the day but I think I managed not to hurt it really bad. I'll stay off it for a couple of days and see what happens. There are too many variables to narrow down: first cold day, sick the day prior (dehydration?),treadmill from day prior? Who knows, but I'm not taking any chances on it becoming chronic again.

First go at Portland Tri rehearsal route

I'm doing the Portland Tri in August, and it has a big hill in it (450ft in 3.23 miles). I suck at hills, which I found out during the Bear Lake Brawl last year (and those were small hills). So I found a hill with a similar profile in terms of elevation gain and distance; there is probably a small difference but this is the one I'm "rehearsing" on for the Portland Tri, which is going to be my biggest race of the year.

Today was the first day I did this hill for a workout. I only did the hill once, but the Portland Tri is a three-loop bike route, which means I have to do the hill three times. But I needed to find out what it felt like. I averaged 12mph up the hill, which I have no idea if that's bad or good. I don't remember any significant wind but there was a breeze into my face on the uphill. It was good to get the first go at this hill out of the way. Now I know how long the workout will take if I do it three times, including the route there (up and over a different big hill on the way out and back, too). The weather was great! 70degrees and sunny! If I average 12mph on the up, I have to average 32 (unrealistic!) on the down to come out at 22mph overall average, which is 2mph shy of my goal. So I guess I have to get that hill speed up to 14 three times in a row. 14mph on the up with a 30mph on the down averages 22mph, too. Maybe I shouldn't over-analyze.

Bike stem update: the new 80mm stem is certainly shorter, but I still didn't keep my hands at the end of the aero bars, which is where they are supposed to be. A 50mm is probably where I would be most comfortable, and that is 1.2 inches shorter. I'm not going to spend another $30 on a stem this year, so I'm stuck with a good-enough-but-not-perfect setup for this year. I could definitely feel that I wasn't sliding forward on the bars, and I think my legs felt better because of it. Also, there was certainly less pressure on the pressure points on the seat, which is always good. My back and neck felt some additional strain from the new position, but I'll get used to that. It's a bit harder to hold my head up with the shorter stem.

Also did an easy 3 miler with Paul in the cruiser earlier in the day. It's nice to just go for a jog (not run) with Paul and Sooner (my dog) on a beautiful day.

I also finally tried something to help my calf muscle pain, which is a recurring pain (not really an injury) every spring that eventually goes away at some point about half way into the summer. I tried the old rolling pin trick, and it worked great. That pain is about completely gone when I walk, and I couldn't even feel it on the run today. I'm going to keep doing it for several minutes several times a day.

Sick and out of town...

I'm in San Antonion for a Marine Corps conference. As I got on the plane yesterday, a bit of the stomach flu kicked in. That flight was the second worst flight I've ever been on. My entire body was aching beyond belief. I guess this is the day that I get sick this year. It has pretty much gone away at this point, and I'm quite thankful for that.

Of course, I didn't work out today. I think I probably lost about five pounds, but I don't have a scale to confirm. I'm certainly more tired than I've been in a long while.

I figure I'll try a short run tomorrow morning and also try to lift a much reduced weight. We'll see what happens.