Run for the Zoo

I should really post something about this. Too bad I'm so freakin' tired...

I'm a bad bad blogger, who has been busy busy busy for a month and a half. So it's catch up time. This post has been sitting in the queue for awhile - time to push it out the door into the world, let it fly on its own and be free.

ok - reader's digest version...

I had Bronchitis for a couple of weeks in April. I was sick and getting better at a snail's pace, keeping it low, keeping myself down, and finally broke down to make a pointless visit to my physician. FYI, going to Urgent Care on Easter Sunday is ideal. It was empty empty empty. I had the place to myself - NOBODY was there.

yet it still took almost an hour.

anyway.

A chest X-ray and low-key consult with a non-freaking-out doc revealed that the good news was no pneumonia. The bad news, well, I considered a diagnosis of Bronchitis to be good news too - since now I knew what it was, and what to do, and was cleared to run at low effort. Whew.

The bronchitis, however manageable with antibiotics, did put an irreparable hole in my training. It torpedoed my volume, and totally took the legs out from under my VO2. This was a case of shit happens, there was nothing I could do about it.

I explored the option of going to California and doing less running - a 10K, a 9 miler, etc. Call me silly, but it didn't seem right to me. I realized that, right or wrong, my head said it's not the Big Sur 10K, it's the Big Sur Marathon.

After a serious look at my upcoming race plans for April and May, knowing that my recovery time from my illness would need to be thorough, I decided to back out of my first marathon plan. Big Sur was out.

Boo!

The last couple of weeks have been an adventure in recovery. I've felt the lack of normal energy in my training and it' s been a little discouraging. However. I am not freaked out by it - I know it's because I was sick, and my lungs took a big hit. I was sick, and now I'm recovering. This is normal. This is OK, and I'll get better.

I get it.

So - I had to ditch Big Sur. I replaced it with the Run for the Zoo - which I seem to do every year now anyway. This year I did the Zoo Run with a twist: I did ALL the zoo runs. They normally have the 10K (for money, which means some real ringers show up to run), followed with a 5K, followed with a 1 mile kid run. I did this series last year.

This year they had an extra 5K - a timed super serious 5K for people who want their 5K timed.

The day before the zoo run, I did mailbox sprints in the foothills with Dave. You know, mailbox sprints? You pick an arbitrary point ("that mailbox"), and then another one further up the hill ("that driveway") and you say "GO" and hit the gas. Up hill. On the bike. I did that on Saturday. I was already convinced that a 10K race on Sunday was going to maybe perhaps be a personal worst. Who cares? It's the Zoo Run! It's for fun!!

I ran the 10K with the foot totally off the gas. Time this year: 57:37. Time last year: 56:10. About a minute slower. More on this minute in the next post - the minute thing turns out to be auspicious...

I ran the super serious timed 5K with Bones' son. Time: about 30 minutes.

I ran the not-so-super-serious not timed 5K with my mother. Time: 40-something minutes with a lot of walking at the beginning just getting through the crush.

I ran the fun run with my own kids. Time: 18 something minutes.

Total mileage for the day: almost 15, if you count the trot to and from the start line from my house.

But wait - there's more. In the next installment. I'll do it soon so that it doesn't become ancient history.