Exercising when you're sick

It all started yesterday.  I felt a tickle in my throat when my alarm went off at 5:00 am but assumed it was just dry from the fan being on.  So I went and taught my spin class.  I felt a little weak while I was teaching but figured it must have been because I was on tired legs since I did Monday's run after work and didn't have enough time to rest.  Then went out to lift weights and several times had to stop because I was seeing spots.  By the time I got home from the gym I was completely wiped out.  I took a hot shower, got my kids off to school, called in sick to work and went back to bed.  I slept for 5 straight hours.  Very unlike me.  

Then last night I slept good so I got up to run this morning.  It's always hard to gauge how you feel in the morning because honestly I always feel like crap until I get going.  Well this morning was totally different the more miles we went I felt worse.  I cut the run short by a mile and had to walk part of my last mile because I was feeling so weak.  Same thing today.  Get the kids off and go back to bed.  I'm not sure what I have because I don't have any other symptoms besides a headache, exhaustion and body aches.  This better go away soon because I have lots to get done and really don't have time for this.

Usually if I exercise when I'm a little sick it makes me feel better.  But this time it seems to just be draining me of everything I have left.  

Do you exercise when you're sick?

My Type of Therapy

This pretty much says it all.  Running is totally therapy for me.  I love the way I feel when I run.  I love talking to the girls when I run.  I love that what is said on the road stays on the road.  

P.S.  Today's workout is an easy 6 mile run.

The Turkey Trot

Four years ago we added a new tradition to our Schultz Family Thanksgiving - the Earn Your Turkey 4 mile run on Thanksgiving morning.  There is a 4 mile run, a 2 mile walk and kids races.  The first year we did it we had shirts made and everyone did the race.  We had about 40 people in the race and 9 of the 10 kids did the race (Mark was on his mission).  I think we walked away with 4 or 5 turkeys that year.  I love starting off Thanksgiving with this race!!

This year only a few of us did it.  And I actually won my age group this year at 29:31.9.  Too bad we left right after the race and I didn't stay to pick up my turkey.  I ran the fastest I've ever run the race (7:30 pace).  It was 40 degrees this year which helped.  Timmy ran with me the whole time and then out sprinted me at the end.  I was so mad at him.  If you run together you finish together!!  

When I finished I ran back to meet Heidi and ran in her last mile with her.  It made me so happy that she was running.  She ran 3 of the 4 miles!!  The last time she ran consistently was when I made her train and do an Olympic distance triathlon.  A few months ago when I signed up for the Utah Valley Marathon Heidi signed up for the half marathon.  I LOVE IT!!  

All the runners at the finish.

Cody, George, Heidi, Timmy, Me, Danny, Kenadi, Todd

Carlee & Lexie

Annual Work Checkup

This morning at work I had my annual health review for lower insurance rates.  They do blood work, weight, BMI, body fat %, etc.  It's great to have cheaper insurance but I wasn't very happy during my personal assessment meeting today.  

In 2005 my body fat was 1% lower that it is now.  That was 2 kids and 6 years ago.  I'd think only varying by 1% would be a good thing.  But this sweet young girl who was doing my analysis challenged me to do better.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  Obviously I'm a bit wound up about this.  She should have been telling me great job on maintaining myself in my old age.  She also told me that snacking every 2-3 hours is the best way to eat.  Agreed.  However, I simply don't have time to prepare healthy snacks everyday for myself so I choose not to snack.  It's not like I'm eating candy bars between meals.  But still she told me that everyday when I get home from work before doing anything else I should pack up my lunch bag with healthy snacks for the next day.  Great idea - maybe she'd like to get my kids settled, dinner on the table, homework done and signed for me so I can pack myself some snacks.  

I'm done.  There were other things that I felt she shouldn't have said to me and maybe if I would have just agreed with her instead of telling her why I do the things I do it would have gone better.  But I pride myself in being a pretty healthy person and my results were all in the "good" category so she should have just backed off. 

Now I'm going to go get today's 7 mile run in and maybe eat a healthy snack :)

Long Runs & High Heels

I ran 15 miles this morning (I meant to run 14 but miscalculated and ended up going longer....dang it).  Changing the long run to a Friday instead of a Saturday was a great idea!  It's nice to have it finished and it was a warm beautiful morning.  And the sun coming up behind the mountains was absolutely breathtaking today. 

However, the bad part of doing my long run today is that I have a big presentation at work this morning so I had to wear my "fancy" work clothes so I had to wear nylons and heels.  My feet hurt soooo bad in these darn shoes.  I know that fashion is pain but mixing painful shoes with extra tender feet is just torture!  

Over the past few years I've had lots of back & hip problems so I rarely wear heels. I love that with the styles today I can still look cute and fashionable in comfy flats.  But not today - I just can't wear flats with this suit.  Oh well If I can run 15 miles I can last a few hours in heels :)

Working out with kids

Yesterday at my spin class one of my regulars had his teenage son with him. I loved that they were working out together.

I've done a few races with my oldest and all my kids have done the Earn Your Turkey race few times. My kids are still way too young to go to the gym or workout with me. But I hope when they are teens I can work out with them. We do situps and pushups at home. And when I do my Insanity workouts in the front room my kids always "workout" with me.

Do you workout with your kids? What age did you start?

Today's workout: Tempo Run
7 miles with 5 @ 8:26

The Running Community

This morning when I was driving to drop off the girls at the babysitters I saw a girl running so of course I craned my neck to check if I knew her.  Then right after that I had to pick up the hubby from dropping off one of our cars at the shop and on the way home there was another girl running and he said "do you know her?"  After I told him no he said "in weather this crappy only people like you run so I figured you probably knew her."

So classic that because I run I think I just might know everyone else running close to my house.  Sadly, I didn't know either of the awesome gals I saw out running this morning.  I bet I'd like them though.  I do recognize people around all the time from the gym or the trail.  I don't really "know" them but I see them often enough I feel like I can say hello.  And last weekend I was shopping and the girl behind me had on a Ragnar Vegas sweatshirt so I thought it was completely normal to just strike up a conversation with her about the race and how she liked it and has she done the Wasatch Back one, how does it compare, etc. Hopefully she didn't think I was some crazy lady.  I love the running community!

Today's workout:  5 mile easy run (although it is never easy to get up on Monday morning and go outside and run on a cold dark morning)