Saturday, October 23, 2010

I’m starting to panic

So, the ING New York Marathon is a mere 15 days away. I leave in 13 days. And I am starting to freak the heck out.

Why?

Because I haven’t run since Monday.

I had my great 18-mile run on Saturday, took Sunday off, and had a horrible, rotten, miserable run on Monday. I wrote it down as a hang-over run from Saturday. But then on Tuesday I woke up with a fever. I finally caught whatever illness the kids have been sharing for the past two weeks.

I started mega-dosing on Vitamin C and sleeping as much as I could given the fact that I had a huge work load this week, not to mention four kids who get upset if I don’t feed them. B was great about sending me to bed early most nights and taking care of bedtime solo, which is no small task.

By Thursday I was feeling better and had every intention of doing a short run Friday morning and then a 12-miler on Saturday.

But then I went in for a check-up with my pulmonologist. I have asthma, which is mostly under control, but I still need to go and let him listen to my lungs every once in a while. During my appointment, he asked if I wanted a flu shot, and I said yes. Then he recommended I get a pneumonia shot. I’m at higher risk for pneumonia due to my asthma, so I said yes. The nurse gave me the injection in my right arm.

Big mistake. Huge mistake. Ginormous mistake.

By Thursday night, I couldn’t raise my right arm without horrible pain, and all the lymph nodes in my right armpit were inflamed. Friday morning I woke up again with a fever and all-over body aches, and the pain in my right arm had spread to my shoulder and back. I felt like I had the flu.

Elizabeth and Campbell had check-ups Friday morning, so turned into one of those patients and asked our pediatrician about the pneumonia vaccine. He confirmed that what I was feeling was a side-effect of the shot and said that I’d probably feel miserable for 48 hours.

son.of.a.bitch

I cancelled running for this morning and crawled off to bed as early as I could.

This morning I woke up with my right shoulder completely locked up and continued flu-like symptoms.

And now I’m starting to panic. I haven’t run since Monday, and that was a terrible run. I need to run this weekend, but unless I wake up feeling miraculously better, tomorrow’s run isn’t going to happen. I’m worried that my fitness level for the marathon is disappearing by the minute. My training was sketchy as it was – I don’t have any fitness to spare.

This is not good.

6 comments:

UltraMamaC said...

you've got two weeks. you are not going to lose your fitness gained over the last four months in two weeks. focus on getting better. deep breaths. YOU GOT THIS!

donna said...

I'm guessing that you must be starting to taper so there is not a lot of extra fitness to be gained in the next 2 weeks so don't panic. Listen to your body and let it recover. That way your body will be ready for the 26.2 and it will be in way better shape than if you try and run when you are sick. Remember that you have done the work already and you will be fine. Come race day just relax and enjoy the race...it will be a great experience whatever happens

Unknown said...

you will be fine. relax and let your body heal.

Baino said...

Oh nooooo . . I've heard of people having nasty reactions to flu shots. Probably wasn't a good idea to give it to you when you were run down in the first place. Take heart, you have a few days to recover, I'm sure you'll do just fine.

Dee at Pedestrian Palate said...

Hope you feel better soon.

ckh said...

I hope you're feeling better by now. I agree that you shouldn't kick yourself too hard - it's time to taper.

Don't discount the energy and excitement you'll have just running the marathon - and all the well wishes we'll send you. :)