Week 14: 25 miles and... sidelined

First, my Week 14 recap. I had to trade one mid-week run for cross training because - get this - I laced my shoe too tight on last week's long run and I guess the top of my foot got bruised or something. After my 8-miler on Wednesday I had shooting pains and knew I'd have to take some time off. But I conquered the bike for a 50-minute workout on Friday and did my 12-miler (pain-free) on Saturday. And I took my first ice bath. Wow. An ice bath on top of runner's high is like very good drugs.

Pace range for this week: 9:33 to 9:55
Temperature range: 33 - 45 degrees

Details for Week 14 (Apr 2 - Apr 8):
Monday: off
Tuesday: 5 miles
Wednesday: 8 miles (ouch!)
Thursday: off
Friday: 50 minutes cross (bike)
Saturday: 12 miles
Sunday: off

Week 14 went pretty well, but on Sunday afternoon, Maple got sick. Really sick. Our scanning thermometer is stupid (well, often wrong) but at one point it read 107.2. When she gets sick, Maple always has REALLY high fevers. The pediatric night nurse advised us to go to the ER, but when I went to wake Maple up, her temp was down to 99, so we let her sleep. The next day she was diagnosed with strep, the flu, and pneumonia. And I got sick too. My doctor didn't do any tests since I didn't have a fever, but she said my right lung was weak and that I probably have a touch of bronchitis or flu or pneumonia. She gave me a massive IV dose of Vitamin C and put me on a strict regimen of an inhaler (the kind used for asthma) and multiple supplements. As much as I worry about the overuse of antibiotics, I really wanted them, but I agreed to see what happened in 24 hours. If I got worse, she'd prescribe them. But I started getting better on Tuesday.

I usually run on Tuesday, but I didn't. When Wednesday came around, I was feeling a little better and wanted to exert myself to avoid the dreaded MS relapse. I jogged one mile. My lungs burned a little and I almost had an anxiety attack, but it felt good to do something. I'm hoping I can run a bit more tomorrow (Thursday), but I'm pretty sure my 20-miler is not going to happen on Saturday. That's the bad news. The good news is that my legs feel awesome after 3+ days off.

The question now is, what the heck do I do? I feel like the 20-miler is really important, but so is the taper. My current thought is that I'll replace this:

Week 15: rest, 5, 5 @MP, 5, rest, 20, rest (35 miles)
Week 16: rest, 5, 4 @MP, 5, rest, 12, rest (First taper week - 26 miles)

with this:

Week 15: rest/sick, rest/sick, 1, 3, 5, rest, 5 (14 miles of sick)
Week 16: rest, 5, 20, rest, 4@MP, 5, rest (34 miles)

This shortens my taper by half a week, but gets the 20-miler in. Maple and I will be visiting my folks from Tuesday to Sunday, which is what will allow me to do the mid-week 20-miler. I'll miss the long run in Week 16, but since it's the start of the taper, maybe that's okay. I don't think I have any hope of doing two longs runs during this week and next.

Anyone have any thoughts about that?

Everyone keeps asking me if I'm running "the marathon", which around here means Boston. I always say "I'm running a marathon, not the marathon." But I'm excited to volunteer at the Marathon on Monday. Sean and I will be minding the clock at the 20k mark and wearing earplugs to mitigate the effects of the Wellesley scream tunnel.