A great start to the week derailed by a summer cold.

Monday: 4.1 (road)
Tuesday: 5.2 (40 min @ tempo, Lakewalk)
Wednesday: planned rest day
Thursday: 5.7 (Trails, Hartley)
Friday: planned rest day
Saturday: unplanned rest day
Sunday: unplanned rest day
Total: 15

I have been firing on all cylinders of late, and so I’m extremely frustrated to have gotten sick. I caught the cold from my husband, so I am not too worried about catching it due to overtraining/stress/whatever. My confidence is shot, though. I sneezed a couple times Thursday night as I was going to bed, and woke up with a full-blown cold on Friday. There went my planned 9-mile “fake race,” and my plans to shuffle my schedule around to accommodate the upcoming weekend by running a long trail run either Monday or today before school. I haven’t even done strength training or yoga. I suppose I could have, but I think all that would have done was set me back on returning to health.

My biggest concern isn’t regaining my strength. I’ve been lethargic the whole weekend and I’ve slept poorly, but I know the strength is still there. It’s my aerobic fitness. I have enough trouble on some of the bigger ascents on my runs, and I really wanted to get to a place where I could get up the 130 or so steps at the beginning of the race course without stopping or needing to recover once at the top. I need my lungs to recover quickly, and I need this cold to not have done any lasting damage to them. I know that sounds dramatic, but I’m not particularly aerobically fit to begin with, so I don’t have a large margin for error.

I dreamed about the race on Sunday night. Obviously this was a result of my drop in confidence. In my dream, I was completely unprepared for the race. I forgot almost everything I needed, except for a water bottle, and I was carrying around a flannel shirt with me. I showed up at the starting line needing to pee, and missed the start looking for a bathroom, which I didn’t find. The course wasn’t at all what I expected, and it went through buildings and out trapdoors and stuff. It was all very strange. I was running pretty fast in my dream, so at least that part was good. I woke up before the race ended, so I can’t tell if I ended up bonking or otherwise paying for my lack of preparation and speedy pace.

I am really hoping I feel well enough by the time I’m done with school today to go for at least a short run. Nothing short of getting back on the trails will ease my mind.