Domino effect

Well, the Gulf Coast Marathon in Biloxi, MS has come and gone. And with it, most likely, my opportunity to be in the Abbott Age Championships in London next year. I needed a sub-3:02 performance to get the combined score to be in the Top 85. However, despite starting off conservatively and aiming for a negative split (rather than even effort), by Mile 7 or 8, I couldn't keep even the 3:05 pace that I was on. My right glute started to get tight, and I progressively slowed down throughout the rest of the race. Given that the Biloxi course is pancake flat (except for a nasty uphill ramp after Mile 24 with the commensurate downhill after Mile 25), I never had any way of gaining additional momentum. Final time was 3:23:29, which puts me at over 400 points outside of what I needed, likely somewhere around 212th. Once I am able to claim the points on Abbott's website, I'll know for certain.

So, what dominoes? Well, naturally I didn't work out the following day -- that was my travel day home. I wouldn't have worked out anyway, since my right hip/glute were hurting. Tuesday I wound up getting out of work a little late and didn't take the opportunity to go to the gym. I also had a bit of a sorre throat that I had chalked up to my last hour at work where I was doing the bulk of talking in a conversation. Wednesday, I still wanted to take things easy. The sore throat had mostly subsided, and on Thursday throughout the day my runny nose (which is an intermittent but rather perpetual thing for me) was getting worse and I was getting congested. So, after getting home, I took it easy (no gym) and took some DayQuil to deal with the nose, congestion, and nasty headache. Today has been a bit of a rough day. While I haven't had a headache at all, there's only so much that the DayQuil can do for the rest of this. While I'm currently feeling fairly decent, I'm going to hole up way from the gym again. It's all I can do to prevent entering the downward spiral of no gym *and* eating poorly. When I'm feeling good and working out, food isn't a problem. But with the COVID precautions, even though I'm 99% sure this is just the same sort of cold I've had before (there's nothing new presenting itself), I need to stay in. And it's infuriating.

Moral of the story: Take care of yourself. Always eat reasonably well (occasional cheats help the mind, but don't make those poor choices a habit), and exercise as regularly as possible. When you treat your body well, it will treat you well in return. Occasionally some bug will slip past your natural defenses, but hopefully your regular good habits will allow you to persevere in short order.