More travelling blues?

Last week I was travelling yet again, this time to Solon, Ohio, again for business.  The week didn't start out well:  I arrived at the airport at 5am ready to catch my 6am flight, which was cancelled.  The next flight out would get me to Chicago about a half-hour after my connection to Cleveland took off.  The airline had me on standby in Chicago but couldn't guarantee me a flight to Cleveland until 4pm, which meant possibly a full 8-hour shift at O'Hare... and they couldn't or wouldn't provide me access for the day to the business center so that I could work during my layover... so I opted to rent a car and DRIVE to Ohio.  It was a LONG day (especially since, after making the determination that it would be fast and easier to drive, I found there would be another hour or so's wait for the rental office at the airport to open! It WAS only 5:30am at this point after all.) Along the way, I found I had a very scratchy throat.  By the time I reached Solon and my hotel, the scratchy throat had graduated to a full-on Sore Throat, and maybe a bit of a cough... not good.

By morning I was Officially Sick.  I was a mess, and I was in a hotel and scheduled for lots of meetings with lots of people.  I'll skip the gory details of my week, but it was long, there was NO exercise, but I didn't have much trouble avoiding "bad" foods.  My hotel has a little kitchenette, so when I arrived on Monday I headed straight to Trader Joe's and picked up a week's worth of groceries.  I was able to have a healthy breakfast and bring a lunch to work each day, and - what I'm going to call "reasonable splurges" for dinner each night, cooked in my little kitchen.  For a travelling week, it was an unmitigated success!  (And I forgot to weigh in so not sure where that stands.  I'll find out this weekend.)  My flights home on Friday went exceedingly smoothly and I arrived home before noon, no driving for me.

I was feeling marginally better by Friday, which was good, because I had PLANS.  Friday was the 10th... the first day of my Birthday Week, and my friends' band, Triple Charge Time, (oh, and check out their YouTube page here) was playing at a new venue in Peoria.  I took the dog for a walk, took a nap, and then got cleaned up and took every bit of cold medicine in the house to ward off the gunk, and headed out for the night.  Jason had to work in the morning so I was flying solo - which was kind of a fun change of pace, but also meant I needed to take it easy on the beer, as I would be driving myself home.  All good things actually, since if you remember from my Glendale post, I had a race Saturday morning, the Evergreen 5K out at the lake.  An early evening going BIG on the music but small on the beer worked all the better for me.  I had a wonderful time, got to catch up with my friends and see a few people I haven't had a chance to talk to since I left the firm three years ago!!  It was great.

Saturday morning's 5k was... well, fine.  I was feeling better, but definitely not over my cold yet.  I decided "Hey, I've paid the registration fee - I'm going!" But didn't feel well enough to run at all.  So I compromised.  I took Coty with me, and we walked the whole thing.  She enjoyed a new route in completely unfamiliar terrain, I enjoyed the INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL weather, nice, flat course, and a lovely 3.1-mile walk.  We finished last and really enjoyed ourselves.  I picked up my t-shirt, commemorative pint glass, and visited with some of my running buddies during the after-race festivities.  Our unofficial time was about 56 minutes... a far cry from a record!  (Though maybe not my LONGEST time...?)

I spent the rest of the week in "recovery" mode.  I'm nearly over this cough, and last night when I walked the dog, I tried some running, to see how my lungs responded.  I managed some intervals:  2 minutes (then about 8 minutes of walking), then three, then four, and after more walking, I found we were about a half-mile from home and tried a 5-minute interval.  After each interval, I suffered a ridiculous hacking coughing fit, but I was able to get through it well enough.  I hope by Friday I'll feel well enough to do a long run.  I'm still training for that 10K next month, and I'm pretty sure there's another 5K in the meantime, for the McLean County Autism Society.

Aside from that, the most exciting thing I've done the past two weeks has been watching Boardwalk Empire.  Jason and I have watched the whole first season On Demand - I like it!  We've started in on Season 2 tonight while I've been writing.  Guess I'll get back to it now.

Have a lovely evening, all...