Pneumonia, 22 Miles, and Soccer Season

First, let me get my breathing under control after seeing that damn ticker on my blog page that says 15 freaking days until the marathon...oh crap!

Ok, back to our recap of the past couple of weeks. So I had a cough...it sucked. Started before Christmas, I coughed, kids coughed, Patrick coughed, they stopped...I kept coughing...crap. But I convinced myself everything was ok because I "didn't feel bad"...until I started feeling bad. One day of bleh followed by a night of fever, sweats, chills, nausea, exhaustion, etc., sent me to the doctor. There I got a presumptive diagnosis of pneumonia (oh joy!) and a hyped up dose of antibiotics. More concerning than the pneumonia was the fact that I had a 22 mile run scheduled a couple of days later (I'm sensing my priorities may be skewed right now...). Anyway, after being fairly miserable, I found myself finally feeling normal again, AND (an important and) the dr. had cleared me to go ahead with my run if I took it slow and truly felt better...so I went.

My last long run...I give myself LOTS of credit for going slow and staying more than cautious. I walked every water/jelly bean break, and I stayed well below race pace. At about 7.5 miles along, I noticed two guys running up ahead. Since I did not know this route, I planned to keep them in view. Around mile 10, I got close enough that they introduced themselves. They were doing a run 9 min/walk 1 min, and I thought that would probably preserve my knees as best as possible. So I stuck with them the rest of the way, even though I felt like I could have gone faster many times (but also pushed to stay with them on a couple of uphills when my knee was angry). They were so great to take me along with them, and I am so appreciative. We kept it slow and I ended up finishing up 22 miles feeling like I could keep going AND pick up the pace.

I felt decent after my ice bath (although tight) and felt pretty good the day after. But this past Monday I hopped on the treadmill to run and EVERYTHING hurt. I had a scary twinge in my knee and bailed a minute early. I still find myself sore, but I had a decent 3 mile run yesterday. This is the taper, time to heal, but also time to drive yourself crazy thinking of everything that's "injured". I have to have faith that I've put in the work, even putting in more miles than required the past few weeks. I'm going to allow myself to run slower, take extra rest days, be lazy ; ). I've made it this far, I just need to be able to line up in 2 weeks feeling remotely good. Just having the courage to stand at that starting line will be a battle won!

In other news, my little diva has had fun dressing in cold weather this week. I promise to get better about pictures very soon. KK the Destroyer meanwhile is exploring lots of fruit...hasn't met one he doesn't like lately, which for Mr. Picky Eater is quite the accomplishment.

And finally, January always brings the start of soccer season. I have to admit things are going much more smoothly than I anticipated. Come to find out, I tend to underestimate my abilities as a mother. But I give huge credit to my difficult road here. It's much easier to be appreciative of wiping a wiggling butt while a toddler is twirling your hair in your face when you prayed for that kind of "trouble" for so long...LOL!

One fail for me...dum-dum is watching a horror movie tonight when it's still hours before Patrick gets home from soccer. Someday I'm going to have to get over a LOT of fears before the kids realize it...you know...my fears of bees, the dark, scary movies, and most importantly...water. If I don't chicken out, this summer will be full of my first foray into not drowning, I mean swimming.