A Rocky Start to 2018

There have been two weeks in this new calendar year. In that brief amount of time, Illinois has experienced subzero temperatures which have made outdoor running inherently difficult and dangerous. Just this week, I went on a 5.43 mile run that followed the same loop five times around suburban streets around Urbana to avoid any ice. I did happen to fall once on that run! I guess what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Weirdly enough too, there was a lot of fog this past week as well. Illinois weather is weird...

Within the first week of the year, I managed to get food poisoning, which pretty much rendered me useless as a graduate research assistant as well as a runner for more than half a week. It was my first time having food poisoning, and boy, I would not recommend it to anybody. As a runner, we all fear sickness. It brings us down from our good health and forces us to stay in bed while blank days in our running calendar accumulate. I think it's important to recognize as runners not to think "if you get sick" but rather "when you get sick." It happens, and you have to know how to deal with it. Rest is important, and you can't fight your well being too much.

Regardless of sickness, my I definitely am aware of all of the time I took off last November and December last year in terms of the shape I am in. I managed to put up almost 37 miles this week (36.94 miles on my count) with a double digit day of running on Thursday and a 6x800 workout today. The 800s felt good. I felt some burning in my lungs after some of them, which is great. In three weeks I will duplicate the workout to gauge fitness changes. I managed to also get my first lift in the past two years this weekend. I am starting to think that I'm going to take this season to really just gain some speed and develop much needed strength in my hips and quads. Only time will tell. The semester starts this coming week too. Only time will tell.