Just a random photo from today's dog walk. It's been 4 days since I last ran, thanks to a cold that came on fast and laid me low starting Thursday. I'm finally pulling out of it, but I am not quite ready to run yet.
I'm not heading into Cherry Blossom the way I had planned, that's for sure. A hip ailment that I picked up 5 weeks ago at the ten miler in Columbia sidelined me for portions of two weeks, and that has continued to nag me from time to time, limiting my training, and now this bug comes along.
I guess on the bright side, I can say that the forced extra rest is giving the hip a chance to heal more. In any case, I'm looking at tomorrow (Monday) or Tuesday to get back out there. Never mind even being "race ready" for next Sunday, I'll settle for just being healthy enough to run at all at this point. I am not even considering Cherry Blossom to be a "race" next week. I'll just do it as a long steady state run that hopefully gets me back on track for the North Face DC half in late April. I think I can still salvage a good race at North Face, if things go well between now and then.
So how did I get here? I think a lot of outside stress has taken its toll. Since being laid off at the very beginning of the year, I've struggled to find new work after restarting my consulting practice. I primarily blame the government shutdown for this. My work depends on the government being able to put out procurements and the stoppage really could not have come at a worse time for me. I have a wealth of connections and leads, and have been working the sales and networking angles heavily to get things going. But still no money is coming in, and that fact is straining the finances. I do have some coaching income, but that doesn't cover much. In any case, it's a lot to worry about and keep you anxious. There is only so much of that you can "run off." If anyone asks you about how life stress impacts training (or how much training stress you can handle), send them my way.
But hey, it's spring, the season of hope, right? Things have to turn soon the way I see it. The head cold will be gone in another day or two and it looks like at least one of the leads in my pipeline may finally pop this week. We will see. In any case, hopefully in three months, I'll have my mind, body and career in better shape.
