Got me the bug

So yesterday I wake up in the middle of the night because my teeth were chattering and I was drenched in sweat. Sinus' are stuffed up. I felt like crap. I took my temp and it was at 98.5. On average, on paper, that looks ok, but my norm is around 97 (I've heard that 98.6 is not the norm, it was an average based on some dudes research, but seemed to stick as the 'normal' body temp--so says the lore). Anyway, you could say I had a very slight temp, but I didn't think it was much. My resting HR on the other hand was thru the roof. Usually I am at 48-52 in the morning. Not so--it was 75-78. I knew I was in trouble. I managed to get sorry a$$ to work then called the doc for an appointment. Couldn't get in till after 1pm, but I went. For the preceding few weeks I have been waking up with a sore throat--the kind that makes it hard to swallow. That would go away after I was up and moving. Anyway, I first see a nurse. She take vitals and by then my temp was 101.5. She is sure I have the flu. The doc comes in and she is sure I have this nasty virus--something that can last 1 to 6 weeks. That would be fun. She is sure I will come down with a nagging cough. She writes me a laundry list of OTC drugs to fight the symptoms and thinks that's what I have to do. Drugs, fluids, and rest. I mention to her that the nurse thought it might be the flu. She said if I had a high temp, she'd consider that. I said, "What's one hundred and one?" She looks at the computer and says "We oughta test you for the flu just in case, but the last person with the flu was in her about 3 weeks ago. It's sorta late for that." She whips out a 4 foot Q-tip and swabs my throat. I didn't think they could actually do a throat culture for the flu. Oh well. I am told to go home and call the automated number tomorrow morning to see if the flu test was pos or neg. Great. I took the bus in to work. I have to wait till 3:40. I get home, pop some tylenol and a sudafed (the real stuff, not that worthless phenylephrine crap they're pushing by the name of Sudafed PE). Within a couple hours I am feeling a little better (why didn't I take some stuff earlier, I don't know).

Again, all night Friday to Saturday morning I awoke with the cold sweats, the chills, body aches, etc. At about 9am I called the number to get my test results. BAM!: "Your recent test was positive. The flu is in your throat." Nice. Actually I was happy about that. I had something that will have a lifespan then be gone. I don't have some freaky unknown virus, endocarditis, or coxsackie (you get paranoid about stuff when you're sick and have children to worry about and also fear that you'll never race again because you have some infectious cardio disease).

With a race coming up on tomorrow I figured I gotta skip it. However, right now, later on Saturday night. I am feeling pretty good. I think I may go to the race, warm up and see how I feel, then decide.

First Race of the Season

After training all winter its hard to know where you're at with your fitness... Nothing like an early spring race to give you a little pain and let you know if your training in paying off. We, Peace Coffee Racing, had planned a brutal hill workout on Genoa Hill for Saturday, April 12--that got canceled due to wonderful (sarcasm) weather. We moved it to Saturday, April 19, and again, the weather caused us to cancel it. We could have done it in the wet cold air, but with 85% of our team in the Twin Cities and several planning to make the trip, it may not have been the most fun for them. Instead, I decided to do a 5k race to see where I was at in terms of my running legs.

I have been doing 5k's (and the occasional 10) sporatically since fall of '99. I stepped it up a little in 2007 because I took an interest in duathlon. I am not fast, relative to 'fast' runners, but I am not the too slow. My quickest 5k happened late last year with a 18:48 at the Stride For Fitness. I thought if I could get close to that or even better that time with my first 5k of 2008 I'd be on track. I showed up to do the SEMYO 5k (SE MN Youth Orchestra) in Rochester in the mist and fog and surprisingly, there were a lot of participants. Many were SEMYO members and parents, but a handful were 'runners.' As usual, then the gun went off a mass of kids sprinted out the first block. A few you knew were just messing around and having fun, but a couple of them were there to compete. After a few hundred yards the leaders started to fall into place. David Kalmes was out in front, his son(?) just behind him and myself a few yards back. At mile one the leader was probably 15 seconds up, number 2 and I were at 5:45 and 5:47. Number 2 and I held the same pace to mile 2 and hit that at exactly 12:00 while the leader was broadening his margin little by little. I moved into 2nd just over the halfway point and put about 10 yards between myself and now number 3. That lasted about 1/2 mile till he took back 2nd. I tried to move a little faster in the last 1/4 mile to take second, but just couldn't do it. The official times are not posted yet, but I think the winner crossed the line around 18:15 or so; 2nd crossed at about 18:50, while I hit the line at 19:00.

I was hoping for a sub-19, but for the first 'test' of the year I am pretty happy with it. See you at the Winter Be Gone Duathlon.

Intro To Multisport Course

On March 29 the Intro To Multisport course at the RAC came to an end. We had planned for a full outdoor brick, but since the weahter was unpredictable and ended up with winds that reached 20+, we decided to ride inside, then run outside. We did a 50 minute interval ride, transitioned, then ran outside-- either a 2 mile or a 3.6 mile run. Of the 12 participants, about half attended the final class--something with the weather...?

I want to thank everyone that participated in the course and wish you well in your multisport events this summer!