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Every year I am one of those people who happen to get a summer cold. I remember getting a really nasty one right before a huge presentation I had to give in front a bunch of the world’s top mammalian genetic researchers at The Jackson Laboratory during the summer of 2007. It was just dandy.

Last Tuesday marked the beginning of my cold, but I had yet to realize it at the time. I swam Monday night in the ocean and ended up drinking most of the Gulf of Maine. There probably isn’t any water left for everyone to swim Peaks to Portland in a few weeks. Sorry, I was a bit thirsty and salt water is just so darn satisfying! Tuesday I woke up with a super sore and dry throat. I just assumed it was due to the salt water from the night before. But, I should have known since all my colds always start with a sore and dry throat. I did my run and then jetted up to my friend’s camp for the holiday. I had a couple of beers Tuesday night and woke up Wednesday with one hell of a hangover. Once again, I assumed I was just hungover from two Bud Lights. Yup, I’m a light weight and proud of it! But, no, it was the beginning of a cold.

I woke up Thursday morning to head into work super early. My nose was running like a leaky faucet and I had a really bad and constant cough. Awesome! I was sick and just in time for a race in a week. Now, if you know me or have been reading my blog for a while now, you know I have a tendency to run races while sick. And then I whine and bitch about having a really sucky time. Yes, I’m brilliant I know. Luckily, Norway is this coming Saturday and not this past weekend because I probably would have done the race while sick… again.

But, anyway, I had made plans earlier in the week to meet a few ladies at Crystal Lake to swim and do a short ride to prep for Norway. I felt okay throughout the day so I met up with the ladies. (I also really hate missing workouts!) We did a quick half mile swim in the lake, which surprisingly we didn’t get run over my boats and I was able to breathe fine. Then we changed and hopped on the bike for a very hilly ~ 13 miles. This was where breathing was a little more difficult. Luckily, I have now mastered the art of blowing snot rockets off my bike without a) getting snot all over myself and bike, b) turning into traffic or off road, and c) falling over. WINNING! And in case you were wondering, you might not want to ride behind me when I’m under the weather unless you really like snot…

I blew a lot of snot all over the road and also into my bike jersey. Yum! The worst part of the ride was I couldn’t really blow snot rockets while climbing up the mountain hills. The hills in the North Raymond/Gray area are great for training. I’m very excited about riding in the area and have already informed my coach that I only plan to ride the hilliest routes possible in prep for IMLP next year. I also told bike shop boy to put on his big boy panties because we will be doing A LOT of climbing in the very near future!

So, I couldn’t blow snot rockets while climbing. This meant that snot was pretty much just rolling out of my nose and down my face to the road. Lovely image I know! But you all know what I’m talking about…

On Friday I woke up feeling a bit better and was pumped to do a bike workout in the evening. I had to work early again and has the day worn on, I started to feel crappy again. I was stuck in a room prepping DNA for 6 hours and I was starting to overheat and get a bit lightheaded. I had been emailing back and forth with my coach about some training stuff and I informed her that I was going to take a rest day to try to recover from this darn cold. I sat at home all evening and watched really crappy reality TV. It was rather boring and entertaining all at the same time. There are some very interesting women on Big Rich Texas. One woman in the show is your stereotypical “dumb blond” and is a bit on the trashy side too, but apparently has a PhD in physiology. I didn’t believe it when she said it on the show so I googled it. She wrote a book on how she went from getting knocked up as teen, getting her GED, and then working towards getting her PhD. I’m actually slightly impressed.

Saturday I had to work all day at the shop and kept blowing my nose. By time I was finished with work I was exhausted. I decided to skip my bike workout and I just took my dog for a walk just to move and get a little workout done without my head exploding! Sunday I was feeling much better. My nose wasn’t as runny and thus I did my long run with a friend on the Eastern Trail. Being the obviously brilliant people we are, we didn’t communicate which parking lot to meet at. I texted her asking her where she was and she replied waiting for me. So we ran towards each other to meet up and then continue on our run. Of course, in all my brilliance (and snot), I forgot my Garmin watch at home. Darn! Luckily she had one! We managed about 7.5 miles at a sub-10 pace and I didn’t feel like dying! Good sign. The rest of the day was rather lazy. Had a late lunch with bike shop boy, made a new batch of granola, and worked on my latest Nutrition Tuesday post for tomorrow (and it’s going to be an awesome one, just saying…)!

Today I am feeling much better, but still not 100%. I refuse to take cold medicine and just let the cold run it’s natural course. I’ve been hitting the Vitamin C pretty hard the last couple of days. And, can I say, Orange juice is quite expensive these days?! A gallon was $5.25! I just hope I will kick this cold by Saturday!