The Sickness

Runners are fragile creatures. Unlike football or soccer or basketball (etc) players who can just drill into the bone to fix injuries, or apply their body weight in tape, every kink in a runner could throw him or her off the deep end. I know a guy who ran 4:10 in the mile last year, and after struggling with a knee injury ran 4:55 a few weeks ago. If you're not a runner, that's at least 4 worlds of difference. A 4:10 miler would never even consider a 4:55 miler in the same zip code as them on the track, and it just shows how careful we as runners must be.

I'm writing this because my 'kink' of late is sickness. I have the worst kind cold - one that fills the lungs with mucus and leaves the body tired and sore. As if I don't do that enough already.

To make matters worse, for the mid-distance crew Mondays come with debilitating workouts. I won't go into exactly what I did because I know I'll ramble, but suffice it to say that the reps were 250m-500m and all-out, with long recovery. Now, after the second or third interval, one is usually clutching the knees, sucking wind like it's their job.

And the sickness? It does wonders for this breaking feeling. Exacerbates it ten-fold.

It blows my mind how something so small like the common cold can slow my workout by several seconds a rep, angering both my coaches and myself.

We're so fragile. How did I get this illness? Well, I take a steady regimen of vitamins to prevent illness, and a few days ago I forgot to take them. 1 day. That's all it took.

If you ever want reminder to take your vitamins, run an interval workout when sick. The pounding of your head like a grandfather clock as you clutch your knees will stay jammed into your frontal lobe longer than you would like to remember, or try to forget.

As athletes, we put ourselves through immense pain to be THE best. THE one. THE winner. And if I can do anything in my power to lessen that Pain and make the sailing smoother, the good lord knows I will do it.

The Sickness debilitates, and the Track spikes are an unforgiving friend.

Take your vitamins. Kill the kinks.