I haven’t run in 15 days.

This stretches back to before my vacation. I ran Monday (2/22) and Tuesday (2/23) of that week, for about 10 miles total (Bagley on Monday night, treadmill on Tuesday), but on Tuesday I noticed my heart rate was more rapid at my normal paces, and I kept feeling like I needed to cough. Knowing I was going to be on a plane on Thursday, I rested Wednesday and felt ok.

Florida was amazing, although it wasn’t exceptionally warm. It was warm enough and sunny enough, but it wasn’t 80 degrees and tropical. I slept poorly and woke up early every day, so I didn’t want to tire myself out further with exercising. I maximized my family time. I suppose I did get some exercise in, in the form of an aggressive game of… I’m not sure what, basically bopping a beach ball around in the pool. It doesn’t have a name yet, the sport is too new.

I returned to Duluth on Monday (2/29), and woke up in the middle of the night because I couldn’t take a deep breath without my lungs trying to cough. I spent the next 2 days working my abs by coughing up a storm. I still haven’t been able to fully shake whatever is wrong with me. Basically just a lot of crap in my lungs. Of course, another plane trip to Calgary for work, with its already dry air exacerbated by the stuffiness of my (otherwise lovely) hotel room, ended up setting me back a lot in recovery.

I am not going to push myself to get back to running, but I really do hope that I can return to running either this weekend or next week. I’ve been very fortunate that I have had no other symptoms (other than tiredness, but that’s to be expected since I’ve been traveling and my lungs are full of crap, so my pulmonary system isn’t working efficiently), but until I can take true, cleansing, deep breaths without feeling like I need to cough, I won’t run.

Zumbro isn’t a goal race, although I did have high hopes for an improvement in overall pacing. The 17 mile race has a nice generous cutoff time, thanks to the 50 and 100 milers, so even if I’m not in perfect shape, I should be able to finish it, even with, say, 2.5 weeks off. I’m just disappointed by the length of this illness.

I may decide to make a new training calendar, focused on the Superior Spring 25K, in order to change my mindset a little. I wish I was running (especially after my friend, visiting last weekend and also training for Zumbro, had a great trail run on the SHT), but at the same time because I feel crappy, I also lack enthusiasm for running. I lack enthusiasm for most things, actually.

I did enter the lottery for the Moose Mountain Marathon in September, though! Because I do know that my ennui will fade as my health improves.