Since we returned to running in the middle of December, we have been building our base back up to officially begin training for the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini Marathon. Going with the philosophy to run as close to the beginning race pace we plan to start at the Mini, we had been running an average pace around 7:30 on every run.
Then last Thursday morning happened. From the beginning of the run, I could tell Ryan was off. We left our subdivision and ran to one currently being built but has the road infrastructure in place. He trailed me by about five seconds. I asked him if something was wrong. Per usual, he looked at me and replied, “I’m fine!” We finished the run and I had him do the “A Big Kick” workout we have started doing after our runs.
As I walked into the house after work that evening, Wendy greeted me with a concerned look on her face.
“Guess who has a temperature of 102?”
“What?”
“He finished school, got a blanket and crawled up on the couch and went right to sleep for two hours!”
Ryan ate dinner that evening. He was quarantined to his room. To make the long story short, we constantly monitored him while also giving him medication. He kept his dinner down, but after that, it seemed the only thing he could handle was Gatorade. The fever was not breaking. We weren’t overly concerned. We decide if it hadn’t broken by Monday we were going to call the doctor.
Ryan was in bed for the better part of a weekend a couple of weeks ago.
The fever finally broke late Sunday night on January 26.
The bad news was Ryan had gotten sick and pushed back our start for 500 Mini training.
The good news was Ryan got sick before we got into the thick of 500 Mini Training.
Once Ryan’s fever broke, Coach Ben and I both decided to hold him out for a few more days. We had already decided to be overly cautious with his training during these next few weeks. We want Ryan to be completely over or close to 100 percent as possible when the real training for the 500 Mini commences.
Ryan feeling better after his fever broke. Coach Cooper still keeping a keen eye on his brother.
I remembered last year when I got sick in April prior to the Mini. I pushed through the rest of the training. Then on race day when we moved up to our next pace for the final 5k, I had nothing left and crashed. I never fully recovered until after the 4th of July.
During the week I was on vacation. It allowed me to run by myself. It also was nice to meet up with some friends I had wanted to run and our schedules finally matched. I decided to run whatever distances my friends wanted to run on those days. By the end of the week, I had reached my miles quota. No worries though – I had some intense sessions of IronStrength with Doc Metzl and his gang. Even on Saturday I went extreme and decided on double the pleasure – I mean pain – with two sessions.
With Ryan sidelined, I got the chance to run with some friends I don’t normally get to see. I also had some intense IronStrength sessions.
Ryan returned to running on Thursday last week. He ran on “Chuck the Treadmill” for two miles. He seemed to pick up where he left off. We went outside on Super Bowl Sunday for two miles at our regular easy pace of 7:40.
Ryan’s first outside run since his sickness was on Super Bowl Sunday. Both of us wearing our favorite football team hats.
Almost completely recovered, it was time for Ryan to get some miles on “Chuck the Treadmill.”
Unfortunately, Ryan’s cough continued to linger. After a rest day on Monday, we decided he would run on “Chuck” until today. After we returned from his weekly speech therapy appointment at the local high school, we ran Cushing’s Hills at our “sexy pace.”
We’ve also taken his watch away except when he runs on “Chuck.” The last couple of weeks on runs, I noticed he paid more attention to the watch. He needs to be fully focused on the road, especially when we go up and down Mullinix. It will also be of importance when we do some longer runs on country roads out to my friend’s farm and further as 500 Mini training progresses.
During the run on Cushing’s Hills, Ryan looked more focused and appeared to enjoy the run more than he had prior to taking his watch. He did a solid job of surging up the hills and then keeping pace with me. Heading over to Cushing’s from our house we ended up with seven miles.
The cadence and elevation chart of Cushing’s Hills.
Our “sexy pace” splits from Cushing’s Hills.
With the sickness appearing to be in the rearview mirror it will soon be time to fully commit and go for it.
Rueff Report 