Can’t kick this cold!

Argh, I’ve had a cold since last Monday. It wasn’t anything bad, either — why can’t I just get OVER colds like a normal individual? It always seems to take me 2-3 times longer to get healthy. So, that cut into my running and skiing last week a bit. Only 6 hours of training :(, 3 days off. The first few days that I came back and ran/skied, I sort of regretted it — just felt sicker afterwards — but decided that was better than not doing anything. If I’m going to take 8 days to get over a cold, might as well have it take 9 or 10 days.

I did more skiing last week because I thought it was easier on my lungs. Who knows. Friday-Sunday I got in over 4 1/2 hours of skate skiing, which is a record for me (I think… I don’t really keep track). Wa-hoo for records. I think it helped a lot. Mel commented that my form looked really good on Sunday when we saw her at Green Acres. I wasn’t fighting my glide as much (normally I’m so concerned about toppling over that I don’t allow for any/much glide), and felt like I was using my legs more — and getting somewhere with all of it! Yeah! So, I actually had a good time :). About time!

Got me to thinking that it might be fun to concentrate a little more on skiing, I might pick it up faster and actually be able to race well sooner. I do think it’d be a lot of fun to be a fast skier. I don’t need to be my running equivalent on skis. Just able to ski & enjoy it.

I am going to make minor tweaks to my training now that we’re a few weeks into the new year. I know I’m not nearly as in-shape as I was last year at this time (last year in late Jan I ran Houston in 3:03). That’s scary for me to think about… to be behind where I was, especially since I have much higher goals now. But, the end goal is not to run fast now, but in a Fall 2010 and ultimately 2011 marathon. So, with that in mind, maybe I’m still on track. I’ll start throwing in a little more threshold stuff and VO2 max stuff now — all on foot. I think at least once a week now, and potentially twice a week. I think I’ll substitute more of my base training hours to skis now (especially if I’m actually having fun like this weekend). I’ll still try to do some hard stuff on skis, but the reality is that I’m never actually going that hard… so it probably won’t translate to much in terms of my running training.

Nate and I will be going up to Boulder this Sunday for a ski race. Hope the weather is nice and the trails are in good condition!!! I like this race because it’s flat and wide 🙂