Soccer, Running, & the Doctor

Monday morning and the rain is falling, this isn't the best way to start the week.  I shouldn't be so glum so early in my post here.  Let me do a bit of recap of the weekend:

Saturday
I woke up feeling like crap!  My throat was killing me and I called the doctor to see about getting in for an appointment.  No luck, they only had an opening at 10:30AM...I had to coach my daughters soccer game from 10:00AM  - 11:00AM.  I would have to settle for Monday at 8:45AM.  The triage nurse told me to take some Advil, use some throat lozenges, and if it gets worse to call during the weekend and talk to the doctor who was on-call.  I did some salt water gargling which helped and my wife ran out and picked up Cepacol (which ended up being my life saver). 

I sounded like Harvey Fierstein at the soccer game.  I couldn't raise my voice (AKA yell) at all to try and communicate to the girls on the field, it was tough.  Regardless my girls won their first game of the year (even though we, the coaches don't really keep score, the girls alwasy do) and my daughter played great, I think she had two goals and nearly scored another after dribble through the other team. 

I spent the remainder of the day powerwashing things.  I started with the room of the girls swing set, then did our front steps and front porch, then moved to the east side of our house and blasted the heck out of that.  Everything looked sparkling clean!  Awesome!  Oh, I also did a pretty thorough sanding of the roof as well, it looks great and will look even better when we put a nice, bright red stain on it!

Sunday
I felt better on Sunday morning, but still not great.  We kicked off the day by heading to church and then getting the girls donuts...I chose not to get any for myself, this was not an easy decision for me since I LOVE donuts!  I give myself a pat on the back for that.

The weather was pretty crappy so it was going to be a "stay inside day" for the most part.  Then again, since I was feeling a bit better I thought I should give running a go.  So, how did it go?  Great, I felt better than I had all week.  I ran seven miles in 56:14 (8:02/mile), with the last four miles all around 7:50/mile (the third mile is all up hill and was really slow).  My legs were no longer heavy, my lungs were fresh, my nose was clearing up, it was all good.  Finally, now I feel like I can get into my Ironman training (which officially kicks off tomorrow) and get ready for the Broad Street Run next Sunday.

The rest of the day was lazy, not much going on except for some games/puzzles with the girls, some unexpected drama from the little ones, and Man-wiches for dinner (yeah!). 

Today
I am working from home because I had a visit with the doctor this morning, just making sure that I am healthy for my trip to Chicago this week.  She told me pretty much what I expected, I am over the worst of whatever I had, but she gave me a prescription for amoxicillin to use if I need it when I am away.  She also mentioned that I should see and ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) doctor about my ears and nose.  My ears have some bumps in them that are probably nothing, but should be checked out.  As for my nose, I had broken it twice when I was younger and ever since the last break my senior year in high school, my allergies have been horrible.  For whatever reason, I haven't ever really made the connection.  I will be making the call later on today.

That is about it for now.  I am going to try and get out for a quick run at lunch or maybe just get the bike on the trainer and ride a bit in the basement.  I am looking forward to doing some runs along Lake Michigan over the next few days (Tuesday - Thursday).  My wife is going to let me borrow her camera so I should be able to take pictures while I am there!  Adios!