Upper Respiratory Difficulties

It's been an interesting 72 hours since Saturday's workout. Somehow, despite my best efforts at insulating myself from germs, I've caught one. It's settled into my lungs and has me mostly dry coughing. I first started noticing something was up Saturday afternoon, but chalked it up to fatigue from the hard running. In fact, I had begun to wonder if I hadn't overworked my heart just a little, since the congestion felt like fluid pressure around the heart sac (I say as if I know what that feels like).

Sunday was a purposeful rest day, and I needed it. But I pulled an unplanned all-nighter Sunday night to pull paperwork together for some tax filings that had to be Monday morning, and so that wasted me for Monday. I'm sure the Saturday exertion and then not enough sleep Saturday night and no sleep Sunday night knocked my immune system on it's hind quarters. Even though I was missing a 2nd day of working out, I didn't mind because I just wasn't feeling up to it at all.

Today's a different story. Everything except my lungs feels revved up and ready to go. In fact, taking a 48-hour break might have actually been better than the one-day rest, though it puts me behind the curve on my weekly mileage plan. I don't want to take a 3rd day off in a row, but not sure if it's prudent to do any running just yet. I feel bad enough to stay home from work, so that should tell me that I'm not yet ready to put the running shoes back on. I don't know. Maybe tonight...a little, easy-paced run.

I have to drill it into my skull that proper sleep is as essential to fitness and performance as all the hard and dedicated strenuous exercise is. I know that, rationally. But it's as if I resist going to sleep. When I finally do let it take me over, I love it. I don't know why I resist. I think I do well on 6-7 hours of sleep a night. More than that and I feel sleepier during the day. Less than 6 or 5 and I can feel myself get on edge. Reminds of some Navy days, on deployment, when I would sometimes go 48 hours without sleep. I could manage it, but mentally you're just not the same during those second 24 hours.

I do feel better today than I did yesterday. Yesterday, my upper back would be hurting after lying down or laying back for awhile. Again, I believe that was due to the infection in the bronchial tubes, with mucus or whatever settling in the passageways. That's not happening today and I don't feel as much of an urge to cough. If this holds, I'm going out for a little jaunt through the neighborhood after dark.

I hope Joan's not reading this. She'll probably scold me.