So I've fallen into a fairly suck-tastic pattern this winter. It goes a little like this:

Be healthy for a few days.
Get wickedly sick for a week.
Rinse, repeat.

Yes friends, I have written more "I'm sick" posts this winter than I can ever remember writing.

Normally, I get one nasty sickness each winter, and then I'm done with it. But this year, I guess my immune system has decided to vacation in the tropics or something and has left me to fend for myself in DC.

The latest ailment to plague me? The dreaded stomach virus.

It hit Monday morning at 3 a.m. and left me curled up on the bathroom floor for close to two hours puking my brains out. At one point, I highly considered dragging pillows and a blanket in there with me so that I could attempt to catch a few Zzz's in between puke-isodes.

Nothing says winning at life quite like sleeping on your bathroom floor.

Eventually my stomach stopped turning itself inside out, and I managed to sleep a few hours before the next wave hit me. Let me tell you friends, Monday was not a fun day. I was so sick, I couldn't even enjoy watching Netflix.

Tuesday was marginally better. The puke had passed but I still couldn't eat. And that brings us to today.

I woke up hungry this morning and was pretty excited to eat real food. Turns out my stomach wasn't on board with that plan. Breakfast made me feel crappy all day long. (I had a bowl of cereal, nothing too crazy).

I had been hoping to get to run group tonight because I'm going to miss the next few weeks because I have other commitments, but I bagged it when I still didn't feel awesome this evening.

At least all the down time this evening let me catch up a little bit on MBA stuff because let me tell you this semester is slaying me. We're two weeks in, and I've already been reduced to tears once.

Good times, good times.

Tomorrow will be my first day in the office all week (thank you very liberal telework policy at my office) and I'm legitimately planning to bring a box of Saltines with me because I can't imagine I'll be up for much more than that. I'm sure that will get some looks.

Anyway, if this sickness stuff could take a hike, I'd sure appreciate it. Also, I am over winter. Is it spring and softball season yet?

Last night on the Metro on the way home from work, I was itching to lace up my shoes and go for a run.

That's a really weird feeling for me. Usually at the end of the day, I'm so drained and exhausted, and all I can think about is curling up on my sofa and doing homework or something.

But yesterday was just a busy, busy day at work. I'm under the gun on a massive project with a really tight deadline and after a day full of meetings, and two plus weeks of no exercise because I was sick, I was dying to get some movement in.

So before sitting down to knock out homework and watch the State of the Union (nerd alert), I set out for a run.



I left my watch at home. I didn't care to know how slow I was going after so much time off. I popped in my music, turned it on shuffle and set out on a loop I haven't done in a while.

And everything just clicked.

My legs felt fresh and not too out-of-shape.

My iTunes was serving me up the most perfect mix of Billy Joel, country music and Top 40 jams.

The temperature was a perfect 43 degrees -- chilly but not unbearable.

And the loop I did felt fresh. Since I'd be running a lot of paths and trails in recent months, mixing it up on one of my more urban routes (to be read: a route with lots of street lights and not scary dark parks) added another bit of newness to the whole thing.

It's runs like this that remind me why I love this sport.

With each step, I could just feel the little balls of tension in my shoulders slowly melt away. The stress of projects and deadlines seemed to fade a bit, and my mile-long to-do list definitely seemed more manageable.

For a brief time last night, I just felt happy and calm and in the moment, a feeling that I rarely find during my regular day-to-day busyness.

And that is why I run -- to chase that sublime feeling that comes from only the best, most rejuvenating runs.

I think I'm slowly starting to recover from the plague. That codeine medicine was the shit, but man did it give me some trippy dreams --mainly about softball. Every night for the last five nights. Totally normal right?

Anyway, I started to feel a little bit better this weekend and let myself venture out and do some fun things -- like watch the Terps blow out Michigan State at home on Saturday.


Pre-game fun with the guys (Jimmy, Paul, Jon)

Hollla 17-2 (5-1) -- good enough for 8 in the coaches poll (and 13 in the AP poll, come on sports writers, get with it.)



And then yesterday, my dad came into town. He's spending a few days at my cousin Amy's house, lending her his baby whisperer powers.


Dad and Heather

Amy invited us all over for dinner and we had quite the crowd. It was me and my dad, my Aunt Marybeth, Laura, Nate and the twins, Kenny and Nikki and Amy, Rick, Abby, Johnny and Heather.

In total, 14 of us, plus Colt -- Amy and Rick's new Great Dane.

I don't have a picture of all of us, that would have been too hard to coordinate, but here's a picture of Colt, who thinks he's a lap dog.


Also the sun was blinding him


Heather just chilling

In fact, I didn't really take a ton of pictures because I was too busy wrestling the little ones. Man playing with little kids is quite the workout.

I did however teach Abby the fine art of the selfie.


Abby's first selfie

She was having fun playing with my phone and when she realized she could take pictures of herself, she took about 50. It was funny.

And now that I'm finally starting to feel better and can breath without hacking up a lung, I'm hoping to start working out again. You know those things that make you sweat a bunch and get your heart rate up, something I definitely haven't done in like two weeks.

I'm still sick so I finally dragged myself to the doctor today.

But not before I puked at my office this morning! Happy Thursday to me!

I went into the office because I thought I was feeling better. I had a tiny bit of head congestion and my still nasty cough, but otherwise felt OK. But turns out my head congestion + the metro led to some major dizziness, which led to a barf episode in the bathroom at work and me Ubering my butt back home and straight to the doctor.

Needles to say, my doc was a little concerned I've been sick for basically two straight weeks, and was even more worried when she found out I had been doing better but then got sick again. Secondary infections and all.

So she gave me some cough medicine with codeine, which is like some sort of sweet miracle elixir, because I took it this morning and am now feeling groggy and loopy, but have only coughed once in like the last two hours. Alleluia. My lungs are singing the praises of angels. (That's the codeine talking).

I'm also on an antibiotic to ward off said secondary infection.

Rock on!

I am a hot mess, haven't worked out in over a week and feel lazy and gross and super exhausted. I'm very sick of being sick. Here's hoping my miracle drugs will do their job and I can get back to my normal self soon.

To end on a positive note: The Terps beat Rutgers last night to move to 16-2 (3-1) on the season. I'm beyond excited that the team is doing so well!

Sometime last week, I came down with some form of the plague.



I started feeling questionable on Monday and skipped spin class that night, but by Wednesday didn't think it was anything more than an annoying cold so went to spin class.

Imagine my surprise on Thursday when I woke up with terrible congestion and such a bad cough that I actually think I bruised a rib from hacking so much.

(No joke, my ribs on my right side are tender to the touch and movement in certain directions is not enjoyable. Either that or I tweaked an ab muscle or something. Who knew you could do so much damage just from coughing?)

I bought $30 worth of cold meds on the way home from work Thursday (had mandatory training or else would have taken the day off) and ordered a massive tub of hot and sour soup to try to unclog my sinuses.


This is all $30 gets you

It didn't work.

Also this was the fortune in my fortune cookie that came with the hot and sour soup.


Someone call my boss...

So I spent Friday and Saturday feeling like a miserable waste of space. Thank gosh for Netflix. I crushed many episodes of Gilmore Girls yesterday.


Sick kid selfie

I'm finally, finallllly starting to feel a little bit better today. I ventured out of the house for the first time to go to the grocery store and managed to get some homework done while watching the playoffs.

I'm surprised how many times I've been sick already this winter. Usually I get the occasional minor cold, but this year I've had two nasty viruses that have knocked me out for about a week each. Brutal.

I'm really hoping this is my last one for the season. Who has time for this crap?

 

So you know what I didn't think I'd be doing in 2015? Another triathlon.

In fact, my big plans for 2015 were to not stress myself out over training for races. There were only three "big" races I wanted to do all year: the Frederick half, the Baltimore 10 miler and the Baltimore half -- the three races necessary to complete the King Crab Challenge.

That was it, other than the occasional 5K or 10K with friends that didn't require major training.

A triathlon was not anywhere on my radar.

But that's just what I ended up registering for tonight.



So how did that go down? Really it was the perfect storm of random coincidences.

1. I went to spin class tonight because it was too cold for me to handle run club. The class was only meh, so when I noticed a dude in the back doing his own drills, I decided to do the same. It reminded me of riding with the guys training for their Ironman races last winter, which made me think of tris.


Aziz, one of my IM training buddies

2. After spin class, I went and chatted with said dude and asked him if he was training for anything specific. He said no, that he was just trying to stay in shape during the off-season. We shared an understanding "yes winter sucks for athletes" moment.

3. While shivering in the lobby of my apartment building and waiting for the elevator, I was checking Facebook on my phone and saw Aila had signed up for her first triathlon.



This is Aila (in the middle), sometimes she and I run races together -- usually with Emily.


Post-Shamrock Half


Pre-Navy Air Force Half

4. I left a comment asking what tri and saying I'd consider signing up except for the whole "I'm terrified of biking in DC" thing.

5. Aila told me I can bike 12 miles in my sleep. I knew she was right.


In fact, I did it once in another tri

6. The race is a 400 meter pool swim, 12 mile bike and 5K. Literally could do that all tomorrow without training. It wouldn't be pretty, but I could do it without a problem. Also, the swim is in a pool, so you have walls to push off of to speed yourself up. It's basically like cheating. And the short distances go along with my whole "don't want to do races that require major intense training" mindset.

7. I have an adorable tri kit courtesy of Moo Motion Sports that I could finally actually race (and not just train) in. (Yes this was a real consideration. We all know I love matchy matchy race day outfits).



8. I remembered how fast I was able to run in races after my last tri because cross-training is good for runners, so some forced cross-training doesn't seem like the worst idea.


This 5K from 3 years ago is still my PR. Thank you tri training and my wicked fast friend Meredith that I ran most of the race with.

And there you have it. A bunch of really random things all happening within an hour of each other led me to throw down the race entry fee and sign up.

Like I said, I don't plan to drive myself nuts training for this. I do spin class pretty regularly in the winter because I hate the cold, so I'll build some decent bike fitness that way. The swim is so short that I won't need to log long hours in the pool. And once the weather gets nice, I'll drive over to Beach Drive, which is closed to traffic on the weekends, for some bricks.

And then I'll go race and have fun. Sounds like a win to me.


Look how smiley I am.

Well it's the third day of 2015 and I have still run zero miles this year. I'm pretty OK with it though. I ran some miles on NYE, and I've been busy enjoying the last few days of my epically long Christmas vacation.


Last miles of 2014

I've been off from work since December 19, and I seriously have no concept of days of the week or time anymore. I keep thinking today's Sunday because it's 7 p.m. and I'm watching the NFL.

I've been seriously enjoying the time away from work and school though. It was much, much needed.

So what have I been doing on my almost three weeks of vacation?

Well I've read four books and I'm half way through my fifth.

I binged watched the final season of the Newsroom and caught up on some movies that were in my Netflix queue (Wolf of Wall Street, Silver Linings Playbook, Divergent)

I watched The Interview because 'murica.



My brother, his girlfriend, best friend and I dug out the N64. I proceeded to lose in embarrassing fashion during Golden Eye, but was dominating at Mario Party.



I spent tons of time with family.


Got this little guy is his first Phillies jersey.

I watched the Terps beat Michigan State on the road in double OT in our first Big Ten game of the season.


MSU game watch crew

I fell asleep during the Terps bowl game because we were getting spanked my Stanford, and 10 p.m. games are the worst.

I rang in the New Year with some of my favorite ladies and played bocce in a dress and heels.


Can you spot the hilarious unintentional photobomb in this picture?

I spent Thursday curled up on the sofa watching the Caps win the Winter Classic and LOL-ing at FSU's loss to Oregon.

Friday, I cleaned and organized my closet, which was quite the task. I now have a massive bag of clothes to drop off at Goodwill.

And today, I got to watch the the inaugural B1G basketball game at Maryland.



The Terps beat Minnesota and moved to 14-1 (2-0) on the season, which is our best start in like 18 years or something like that. We're ranked #12 now, but we'll move up after our two wins this week and a helpful loss from #6 Villanova. Top Ten here we come!

So that's what I've been up to. I still have two more days of vacation (I don't go back to work until Tuesday), so I plan to do some more reading, probably some running and mayyyyybe finally start that case study that's due the first day of classes this semester.