H1N1 don't mess with my long run!

Everywhere I turn it seems someone is suddenly sick. Both of my boys battled off fevers and congestion last night. Today, their Daddy (a.k.a. my third kid) not only has the fever and congestion, but chills, upset stomach, sore throat, and body aches (although he claims those are from the push ups he did yesterday. hmmm). At school, students and professors alike are already coughing, sneezing, and sniffling all over the place. While no cases of the pig pox (swine flu , whatever) have been reported at school or in my home, YET, I'm still nervous.

Immune system, don't fail me now! Don't you know that Baltimore marathon is one month from tomorrow? I don't have time to get sick. Save it for the holidays, please, since that seems to be a trend for me anyways (anyone remember a Christmas where I wasn't sick? Neither do I!)

I've got 31 days for 3 more long runs (18, 20, and 22 miles) , and one shorter run during taper week (funny when 10-12 miles becomes "short") that I can not and do not want to miss. Not to mention 3 days a week of bootcamp, and my weekly maintanence runs. And speed work. Gotta love the speed work. I can't get sick. I don't say this out of desperation/stress, I say this out of excitement. Yes, that's right, excited for a 22 mile run, at 5:30 in the morning, by myself. This new shirt from One More Mile I bought this weekend at the expo seems very appropriate in this case.

I've got 31 days to convince my history teacher that picking October 9th, the ONE DAY I planned to skip school (so I could make it to the marathon expo) as the assigned day for our midterm, was not nice. Ok, maybe it wasn't her fault for not knowing my race schedule (haha). But I've got 31 days to convince her to let me take it early, even though the Baltimore Marathon is not a "valid" University accepted reason for absence, despite the many miles, early mornings, and fundraising I've put into it.

I've got 31 days to work on my nutrition. Yesterday, in my exercise phys class we started talking about fuel and energy. Very basic, just skimming the surface before we dive into the knitty gritty, but the (obvious) point is: your performance relies on your diet almost as much as it relies on your training. Really, I kept waiting for my professor to just bust out with a "so lay off the junk food Heather". haha. I also learned that the more fit I become, the more I will rely on burning fat for fuel instead of carbohydrates, meaning hopefully I can get somewhat passed this "OMG if I don't GU now I might die" phase. Also meaning, while I'm not totally out of shape, per-se, I have a lot of work that can be done.

What kind of a difference will 30 (not 31, I've already had a mountain dew today) days of healthy happy nutrition make? We are about to find out. Mama's about to take a drastic step. There will be no, I repeat, NO junk food of any type brought into this house on Friday's bi-monthly grocery shopping trip. Rich started his self-prescribed workout routine yesterday (remember the achy muscles?) and well, I'll just help him along, right? Plus, according to the CDC and all of those other higher ups in the germ world, healthy eating and lots of sleep will help me prevent catching the piggy flu. And since we all know adequate sleep never happens in this house, I better start cramming myself full of some antioxidants.


My realistic goal for Baltimore is a 4:15:00. My current PR is a 4:37:00 (on the dot!). 22 minutes to shave off of my Marathon time. More would be awesome, but like I said, let's be realistic. It's going to be an interesting month around here folks. Stay tuned !!

P.S. it appears I'm 2 blog posts away from the big 100. And it seems the trend on blogspot is to do something super fabulous for your 100th post. So, uhh, I'll work on it ;)