Saturday, February 23, 2008

Running sick

After nearly a week of bleary-eyed, stuffy-nosed mornings during which I was too tired and too ill to work out, I slept in this Saturday and prepared myself mentally for an afternoon run. Even though it was not much over 30 degrees out and a half slush, half ice mess still clung to the ground, I donned my running tights and sneakers for a nice long speed workout.

There's been a particular strain of ick floating around my office of late, infecting nearly everyone over the last two weeks. I fell later than most, but fell just the same. Not quite flu strength, its left me incredibly tired and congested nonetheless.

But in all honesty, I find that there's nothing like a good workout to help restore some feeling of health in my body. I was definitely not at the top of my game during workouts this week, but when they were over, my sinuses were clear and the flush in my cheeks and the slight ache in my muscles felt like a normal post-workout fatigue. For at least 15 minutes there, I felt relief...I felt normal! It's hard to say if working out while sick prolongs or hastens my illnesses, but I tend to believe the effect is a draw, at worst.

And speaking of health...when I returned from my run I found a note from Kate taped to the TV. She'd gone out for a haircut but could I please pick up this package at the post office -- it's our new free water tester that she'd ordered from the DEP.

While my pursuit of good health has led to a lot of sweat, Kate's has veered more in the direction of purging toxic chemicals from our lives (getting rid of our Nalgene bottles and making our own cleaning products) and localizing our diets (signing up for a CSA this summer and hoping to obtain meat products from free range farms in the tri state area). Between our respective obsessions I'm convinced we'll both live to 150.

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