Vacation

I've taken a forced break from running since the Great Pumpkin 8 days ago. I did fall off the wagon on Saturday and run the River Run, but only because it was followed by blueberry pancakes and bacon at Bernies. I've been unusually relaxed about this, as I'm typically a bitter whinebot if I'm not training. More remarkably, I really haven't replaced running with anything, because I really do want to rest my glutes/hamstrings.

I managed to get H1N1 (the CDC states that the only flu going around now is this) on Sunday. It came on very quickly; at 12:25 I was relaxing after a gorgeous walk along the river with Cacky and neighbor John & Sarah and was catching up on the NYC marathon results and getting ready to go mountain biking (trail exploration not exercise). At 12:30 I started to feel chilled and a little achy. By 12:40, I felt like my face was on fire. I cancelled mountain biking. I had a raging headache and was feeling flu-ish (chills, body aches, feverish), so around 2PM, I went to bed but mostly played around on the computer because I wasn't tired. I had a 102.3F fever. By 5PM I was feeling much better and by 7PM I felt close to 100%. I was expecting to go to class today but Cacky convinced me that this wasn't the appropriate action in the middle of an H1N1 pandemic. So I stayed home today, which is only the 2nd time in my life that I have missed class (either as a student or teacher) because of illness).

I'm not sure when I'm going to start training again or what activity that will be. I have a nice Concept II erg but that would be huge stress on my glutes/hamstrings. I don't see biking as a real alternative in November/December. So I'm hoping to pick up a pair of roller skis. Which means I may not run again until April. Or maybe I'll run a couple of days/week after I'm confident the ass is better, so that I'm more fit for Pineland in May.