Cross Training

It's been a weird December in Minnesota. The temperatures have been uncharacteristically warm and after yesterday's high shooting into the mid-40s, there's almost no snow left on the ground. Saturday morning I enjoyed a nice 15 mile jaunt through Minneapolis and St. Paul with some MN Running Wild pals. We ran over a thin layer of snow that would be gone by the afternoon. While it's a little cooler today and the temperatures are suppose to drop for the rest of the week, I was still excited to get outside during my two week hiatus from teaching to enjoy some runs during the daylight hours.

Yesterday was so lovely that I got this great idea to take a quick spin on the bike before going for a run. Regrettably, spending a couple hours outside in the unseasonably mild and sunny weather was not to be. Rather, my upper respiratory system refused to cooperate and instead unleashed a fury of fire in my throat and lungs. I'd been stuffed up for a couple of days, but now this so-called cold had migrated from my sinuses into my tracheal depths. As I pedaled my bike in what I hoped would be a leisurely hour long ride along the river, my throat became a tube of unquenchable fire while my laborious breathing squelched any further hopes of spending a pleasant winter afternoon in aerobic pursuits.

My mucous glands are working overtime today and my throat feels like a small, snot covered rodent has managed to crawl up and down my trachea using its sharp little rodent claws, inflicting painful damage throughout. I was hoping to run today with a MN Running Wild friend, Don, to get another longish run in, but instead I'm going to sit at home writing fever-induced, nonsensical blog posts, drink tea, continue reading "Team of Rivals," and try to motivate myself to grade thirty-one middle school writers' short stories.

But enough about my respiratory health. As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm planning on doing a triathlon this spring. It's looking like Laura and I are going to do the Rochesterfest Triathlon. It'll be Laura's second triathlon and my first. Right now my main goal is to make it through the swim portion without drowning. With such a lofty goal in mind, I've been spending a decent amount of time swimming. While swimming is not my first choice of exercise, it's become somewhat more enjoyable over the past couple of weeks. I still have absolutely no idea how to pace myself, but I'm hoping that with continued practice I might be able to not only not drown, but even swim the entire quarter mile without having to switch strokes to prevent said drowning.

Running, however, remains my number one fitness priority and I was hoping to get some quality mileage in after several mediocre months in a row. With the time off from work I was pumped to continue the swimming while having more time to get extra running in. If this upper respiratory nonsense doesn't get better soon, I'm going to be exceedingly upset. On the plus side, while I was lying miserably in my comfy chair last night, Laura felt sorry enough for me to make me a fish sandwich and a salad.