I'd Rather Be Working

There's nothing fun about real, honest to God, sick days.  Being stuck in a stuffy house when it's 100 degrees outside, with a husky (but not sexy) hoarse voice, a hacking cough and a blazing sore throat during the middle of the summer, which means there's nothing good on TV to watch (except my new guilty pleasure In Plain Sight on the USA Channel, which might only be good because there's nothing else to watch).

Day 1 of my cold started with my long run for the weekend (11.75 miles in total at the end) and I felt great.  It was only when I ran into a friend (no pun intended) and ran with and talked to her for a bit, that I realized my voice was hoarse.  Hummm.  Was it because I forgot to turn on the humidifier to sleep the night before or maybe the dry hot air?  I couldn't be getting sick because I felt good otherwise, right?  But by the end of the day, I was starting to cough.

Day 2, I braved going to work.  I didn't feel too bad.  My voice still sounded terrible, and my cough had gotten a little worse, but not enough to keep me home.  I only had to walk out of a patient room once to hack away for 5 minutes.  By evening, I wasn't feeling to great, but hoped that this was a short lived cold and I was through the worst of it.

Day 3, my hopes were dashed and I woke up barely able to talk.  I'm not sure it was more painful for me to talk or for people to listen to me.  My throat had started to hurt and my nose to run. So I called off sick. Like I said, summer TV sucks.  In Plain Sight occupied me for a mere 50 minutes.  I was not amused to watch my newest yard pest, a multitude of California Ground Squirrels, eat my garden.  I wasted away some more time by banging on the window to scare them away (they always come back) and attempting to shoot at them with a BB gun (yes, I really did), but my aim is bad and bb's won't kill ground squirrels anyway.  (But more about that battle another time.)  I find I can only surf the internet for so long, and Facebook has lost it's amusement factor for me.  Fortunately, I had the newest bookclub book, "a visit from the goon squad" to take up a little more time.

Day 4 dawned after a night of little sleep -- it's hard to sleep when sleep is interupted by pain everytime you swallow and fits of coughing.  At 7am, my blazing sore throat gave me fears of Strep throat, it still hurt to talk, and my coughing was none the better.  So, call off day 2.  I took some more NiteQuil (even though it was now day) and slept until a text woke me up at 11 am.  At least I woke up feeling a bit better.  I frustrated myself again by watching the ground squirrels, but only shot the bb gun once since it really was futile.  Finding something to watch on TV was futile again too, so it's was back to reading.  And that's what I did the rest of the day, until I finished my book club book and now I'm writing a blog.  Fun times.
So tomorrow I'm definitely going to work.  Sick or not (of course, there's little chance I'll be completely better).  But I'm sensing I'll be at least a little better.  And if I'd take another day off, I'd definitely pay for it in more way than one.  Hopefully my patients will forgive my hoarse voice and a little coughing.

Training Day

Training Day #1.  For the San Francisco Nike Women's Marathon on October 16th.  Only 125 more days of training to go!  So I'm back to running.  I always knew I'd end up back as a runner, I just didn't realize it'd be by necessity.  But I'm glad to be back here.  I forgot how good it feels to run and be in good shape to do it.  Ah, the running endorphins...  So 10 1/2 months after breaking a femur, I'm training for a marathon.  5 months ago, I started out with shuffling/walking/jogging sessions.  In March, I did a duathlon with some awesome friends, and limped through the run, but finished out in 2nd place in my age group, go figure!  And 2 months ago, I ran the Run Through Redlands Half Marathon on a whim and finished in 1:57, when I never even thought I'd be able to run the whole thing without walking in the first place (which I did).  So I'm so thankful to be where I'm at: healthy, happy, and walking (or rather running).  This weekend I did a 9.65 mile road run and a 9.35 trail run (19 miles total).  So I figure I have a pretty good base to start out my training.  My goals for this marathon aren't big.  I have no illusions of setting a PR or qualifying for Boston (which I was 5 minutes off from the last time).  I just want to make it through and finish.  (But with a semi-decent finishing time, of course.)

You Pick

I felt like I was in Michigan today.  Well okay, minus the 90+ degree weather with 90% humidity; it has actually been cooler here in sunny Southern California, than in my home state, go figure.  But I won't complain.  But anyway, who would've thought that I could do some good ole' blueberry pickin' down here in the desert.  I planted my own blueberry bushes last winter, but they have only yielded 4 ripe blueberries so far (with not much more to ripen on the horizon -- but considering I can count the number of branches and leaves on each bush, that's not so surprising).  So yesterday, I was driving down San Bernardino Avenue and saw "U PICK BLUEBERRIES" on the corner of San Bernardino and Dearborn, and I just couldn't get the thought of blueberries out of my mind.  So after a beautiful run up Crafton Trail, guess where I ended up?  And the best part?  I could eat while I picked.  Yum!