Back from the Dead....I Mean the Cold

One may think that I haven't blogged this week out of protest for having to come back to the cold western PA weather after a great weekend in NC. Or, one may have just written off my lack of blogging as the usual non-weekday pattern I sometimes get into.

However, it was something else--a rare cold that had me beat down all week. I don't get sick often--sometimes I'll go a whole year without anything more than the sniffles. I felt great down in NC, but by Sunday night I could tell something was brewing. Fortunately, it just stayed in my nose-sinus-throat area. Unfortunately, it hung around until pretty much today. I was faced with some tough (not really) decisions on whether or not to take sick days. It went something like this:

Tuesday--Can't take that off, it's the first day back from break. I have nothing prepared for the kids. Also, it's the FIRST day of winter/indoor track practice. I can't miss that! So, I toughed it out even though I really couldn't talk too well with the clog in my throat. By the end of the day, I started to feel a little better, so I even participated in some agility drills with the jumpers & sprinters. BAD IDEA! I got home, ate dinner, cleaned up after dinner, and went right to bed shivering and unable to breathe for the next three or four hours. I thought, "If I feel anything like this in the morning, no way I'm going to school." However....

Wednesday--Can't take that off, we have a math dept meeting after school. I actually missed one last year due to sickness. I didn't want to give off an appearance of conveniently being sick on days when we have (sometimes boring) department meetings. Fortunately, I felt a little better and toughed out another day. I went to choir practice Wednesday night, but was sucking down water and blowing my nose in between every song. I was having no problem getting the low notes, but those high ones were a little tricky and screechy. So, ...

Thursday--Maybe stay home to regroup? But I was starting to feel better and able to breathe at around 60% nasal capacity. I participated in most of track practice and felt like I was turning the corner. I was still stuffy, though, and it completely took all taste and flavor out of the best night of the week--DiGiorno Pizza Night.

Friday--This would have been a good way to start the weekend.....but I was feeling better. In fact, so good that I went to the school's adult/masters/teachers/whatever-you-want-to-call-it swim workout (more on that later). Track practice went well (5 miles on the roads) and now I'm still blowing my nose every once in a while, but my head feels a lot better.

I swam twice this week--Monday and Friday. The first once was at the precipice of the cold and I swam a very lackluster 1650 yd time. But, I at least put the time in and it'll pay off down the road. Today, Ben and I did 2 x (5 x 100) on 2:00 with 1:00 rest in between sets. That's the fastest I've ever done that many hundreds (ranging from 1:50-1:59+), but I need to credit Ben with most of the effort because I knew I still wasn't quite 100%. So, I just hung on his feet as best as I could each time.

At the end of our last hundred, Jon (assistant swim coach/science teacher/fellow triathlete) said, "Why don't you guys now try an all out 100 now?" I kind of laughed, but then realized that he was serious. I'm still trying to figure out this whole swim workout thing. It's different than running training--especially that whole idea of holding or minimizing your breaths while swimming really hard!!! Anyway, most of the other people had left, so I moved over a lane (so as not to leech off of Ben anymore).

We took off and I was with Ben through the 50, but I ran out of gas. He ended up at an AWESOME 1:31. I ended up at a near-PR 1:44. I'll take that at the end of 10 hard 100's, being sick, and remembering that I hadn't cracked 2:00 yet at this point last year.

Okay, that's long enough for one blog. Lots of sports-related items to write about this weekend: PSU & the Rose Bowl, Steelers-Cowboys, all the college BCS-implicating games, Plax, PSU hoops big (sort of) win, ..... the list goes on and on!