Indoor no more

Well the other day I found out why I have been sick and coughing for the last 6 weeks.  I have whooping cough.  So this has essentially put my indoor season to an end before it every really got started.  I tried to race a few early season races with one very poor performance, and two dnf's.  I knew going into all the races that I was sick and shouldn't be racing, but part of me was nervous.  I thought that if I didn't race indoors and run fast then my outdoor season was going to struggle and I wouldn't hit the A standard for US Nationals in the 3ksc.  The reason for that was because I had planned to get a lot of my speed work and shorter races in during the winter time.  To have a few months were I was running 110 miles a week but still getting in really fast races and workouts.  So not having an indoor season really ruined my plans.  With all that being said I got to the point were my body was just to run down and tired because I was trying to workout and race when I should be taking time off or running easy miles.  So I had a stretch of some very good days and high miles, but at the same time I had times were I didn't run for a few days because I was just to tired and felt like crap.  I finally realized that I just needed to take it easy on my body and rest it up.  It finally clicked in my head that if I miss a few workouts and miles now I will still be fine come outdoors. 

So now that I have sat down and realized what my body needs right now and what it cant do.  I have decided that I will take it as easy as my body needs for the next few weeks to get healthy.  I will start slowly getting back into workouts and miles.  I have a few big meets in April (Princeton Invite, Mt. Sac, and Penn Relays)  I have decided that I will use The first Princeton meet as a tune up to just get the rust out of my legs in the steeplechase ( If i run fast great but for those who have never run a 3ksc before, you should know the first one is always rough getting back into form)  Then at Mt.Sac and Penn Relays I will really go after the A standard of sub 8:46.  If I get the time I need then I will get ready to go for nationals.  If I dont then I will get ready over May to make another go at it during late May and early June and some high performance meets.

I will update you all with the last couple of weeks training (or lack there of) soon.  It just frustrates me when I have to write about off days or missing workouts when I know I should be runing fast if I was healthy.

Wish every one else the best and to stay healthy the rest of indoors
Tim