Instead of breaking into a 60 mile week with a 22 miler last week, I ran 25 miles Monday through Thursday and not a single step until today.  For the first time ever, I have refrained from running for 5 DAYS STRAIGHT, not due to injury, but to an evil, nasty FLU!! 

Yes indeed. Well what brought me to this lovely place probably started September 27th. On that day, we had a big party at our house for the mom-in-law.  But the teenage stepson wouldn't get out of bed.  Being the good stepdad I am, I attempted to cajole him into stepping out and saying hello at least. But he wouldn't budge, even just to greet Grandma. Later that night Urgent Care said he had a strain of H1N1.

So as a special birthday gift we rewarded Grandma with Grandkid quarantine duty the next 3 days. In the meantime his little brothers caught something too, though not quite as bad.  I washed my hands with soap and warm water every chance I could...hoping, praying, pondering the longshot chance that I would not be affected by this influx of yuckyness.

So I'm in the clear still on Thursday, thinking I'll run 22 miles on Saturday morning and be primed with my longest training run for the Santa Barbara Marathon. Yep, then a 5K the following Sunday to sharpen up a bit!  Calm before the storm.

At 11:45 p.m. PDT, Hurricane Dry Heave hit, and came back and hit again, once an hour, until 5 a.m. Friday morning.  I'll refrain from providing more graphic details of this wonderful experience. Truth be told, there are better ways of shedding pounds.

One flu. Am I going cuckoo? How is it possible to get sick and injured so often?  Nearly one third of my blog postings have to do with this topic!

In my younger days I was out running, feeling light and lean after a stomach bug, sometimes the next day. Not so with this one. I was on my back most of Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  Was OK to work on Tuesday but not yet run. Though I did run up the stairs...my feet felt real light, my chest is majorly conjested so I felt asthmatic.

So today, Wednesday, I did get out and run 1 mile in 10 minutes.  It felt pretty good all things considered and I was able to breathe a little better, but not deeply.

Am I fretting about this?  Nope. I've come back time and time again from injuries and illnesses. This flu was pretty bad but, heck, I'm already feeling better.  Still 2 months until the marathon. My biggest challenge will be mental...how to pump myself up to run 22 miles after another off week.

I'm Over the Cuckoo's Nest and ready for As Good as it Gets, Jack.