deep rest repeat

After the show that was B2B, I took a week of deep rest.  I had a week of physical peace, even though I was traveling and worrying and calculating and then we decided to move most of the way across the country.  But it appears that wasn't enough, because the first morning I woke up in Boulder, I had a bit of a scratchy throat.  Over the day, that blossomed into a deep-in-my-chest sickness that sent me home from work early my first three days in the office (am model employee right off the bat) and had me in bed for a solid week.

I canceled my Thanksgiving plans with my girlfriends and instead laid around reading library books and hanging out with the friend I am staying with in Boulder and her awesome family (lucky them).  And for the first time since I've been active, I did not worry one little second about taking the days off, or resting, or missing any fitness.  Not even a little, secretly, underneath.  Instead I just gave in to what my body wanted.  I ate things that sounded good, I slept as much as I could, I drank gallons of tea, I looked at dozens of house listings online and waited it out.

And on the ninth day (ugh), I woke up and felt a little better.  Enough to take my seriously inadequate bloodstream for a 20-minute jog (and spend 6 hours with my British-accented realtor) and that was all.  Oh, and make vanilla cupcakes with lemon filling and raspberry frosting.  There was that, that did happen.  They weren't pretty but they were delicious (burp).  

Yesterday I felt even less boogery and full of phlegm, healed enough to do a "5 songs out 5 songs back" walk slash jog, which felt great except for being completely unable to get enough oxygen into my body at any given moment.  But I'm running again, and that's good.  30 runs in 30 days is out the window because I'm not planning on running 13 times over the next four days, but I did have a solid 15 runs in 15 days to start the month.  And beyond that, I embraced my off-season.  I haven't been on my bike since October 20th and I haven't been in the pool since almost that long, and it was exactly what I needed.  I started to feel motivated to swim again over the weekend (hello, year-round outdoor pool) and I'm planning on getting back in the water today...or maybe tomorrow.  We'll see.  I have a few more days where I'm allowing myself to be a sloth and sleep until December 1, and then it's time to get the train moving again.  Very slowly and gently and nothing crazy, but moving again.  Creaking track by track up the side of the roller-coaster.