Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Nooooooooooo!!!

I’ve said the weather can’t go on like this. Apparently I’m wrong. The weatherman from the Irish Times says, and I quote, “the current spell of stormy weather is likely to be of several months duration”. Several! Months!! Several Months!!! Surely Not!!!!

On Monday they had predicted that the next storm front would hit us on Wednesday. When I left the house on Tuesday morning, I thought they had been wrong, and the storm had turned up a day early. It was raining heavily and the wind was very strong, which made running up the water witch a real joy, as you can imagine. Apart from the howling winds the run was actually quite unremarkable, until I got home. As soon as I went through the door, my eyes started hurting. It got worse and worse, and then they started swelling up as well. I’m all too aware of the symptoms, it was yet another allergic reaction, but to what I don’t know. I looked really bad, and eventually took an anti-histamine tablet. Niamh didn’t want to let me go to work, but I started to feel better eventually; I got some funny looks in the office. The tablet made me drowsy, and I didn’t have the best day in the office, but the eyes felt better by the hour. One work colleague thought one farmer might have sprayed something dodgy on the fields I had passed, but there is no way of knowing. I’ve been though the whole experience before.

I still felt some residual itchiness today, but it’s mostly gone. What hasn’t gone is the storm front. It turns out the meteorologists were right after all, and Tuesday was just the prelude, today we got hit by the full force. It was really bad during the night; the kids all came into our bed one by one because they were scared. Luckily for me the rain had mostly stopped by 6:30 am, though the wind was as bad as ever. It made the first 5 miles of today’s run a challenge. Actually that’s a lie. Some parts of the Caragh Lake road were quite sheltered; it was over maybe 2 miles where I really had to fight against the wind. It got a lot easier after I turned around, now the wind was blowing me home. I added 10x100 strides into the return leg, but tried to run relaxed and slowly for the rest. It was still completely dark when I got home, we are obviously close to the shortest day of the year. I also noticed the first symptoms of a cold, sore throat, headache and light-headedness. I’ve taken Vitamin C and Echinacea and hope it will keep the actual cold at bay. It’s not just me, Niamh isn’t feeling too well either. The last few times I’ve had the early symptoms I managed to scrape by without getting sick, so I’m reasonably optimistic I might get away with it once more.

12 Dec: 6.75 miles, 56:22, 8:21 pace, avg. HR 156
13 Dec: 10 miles, 1:25, 8:30 pace, avg. HR 153

8 comments:

  1. So the weathermen speculating as to why you are in for a series of storms? We ran in wind and rain here today, but it does not sound as bad as you are describing - plus it was 50 degrees. I liked it. When I came out of the preschool around noon, the rain was blowing sideways though.

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  2. SEVERAL MONTHS?!

    omg

    crazy!

    that sucks bout the allergic reaction; tough!

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  3. I'm simply amazed at your ability to continue with your training plan despite weather that would keep most of us cowering in our beds.

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  4. Can you run with rubbers over your runners?
    LOL
    Your one tough guy Thomas.
    Hope you are able to hold off the cold.
    I've been fighting the same type thing for over a week and finally gave in yesterday.
    Took 1/2 day off work, came home and went to bed mid-afternoon.
    Here I am up at 2am in the morning..
    My sleep schedule is a mess now.
    Feel better soon!

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  5. Please do NOT send your weather my way! I hope you and your wife are feeling better soon. On a positive note, if you can train through all these storms just think of how well you will race when (if?) the weather clears by race day ;-)

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  6. Hope that ticklish feeling can be fended off. I get especially worried with co-workers who come in sick this time of year. We'd love to see the sun again this month. Are you sure it's still out there?

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  7. We had some similar weather to you today in the pacific northwest, USA. Strong winds, sideways rain - but I think it will only be for 1 day. It was nice to be running in "your" wet shoes today.

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  8. You definietley get the Perseverance Award.

    I'll bring it right over...when it stops raining.

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