Mulligan please

ugh, what a week........I want a do-over. On second thought, it might be even worse so never mind I guess, lol.

First off, Monday started off ok. Got in 9.33 miles (9 scheduled) that included a warmup run to the health club then 8 x 800s at 10k pace (8:19 or just under for me) with 400s for recovery (5.25 miles on the 'mill), then a cooldown run back home. I didn't think I was ever going to get back across Hwy 36 to my neighborhood though, morning rush hour. Even at the stop light I was kind of spooked to run across when the crosswalk light said it was ok. Eeep, Monday morning and Friday evening drivers are the WORST!

Immediately after showering and a quick bite to eat, James and I took his mom to the urgent-care clinic so we could all get our flu-shots, our insurance would cover it there and we didn't have to make an appointment. Unfortunately we were surrounded by sick people coughing everywhere, ewwww. I think there was only one other person there besides us that didn't have some kind of flu already.

Monday afternoon I ended up stepping on an anthill while doing my truck walkaround inspection before leaving out. Those little buggers swarmed my right leg and started stinging, ouch, ouch, ouch!!!!!!! Thought I'd gotten them all knocked off, smushed, shaken out of my shoe, etc but walked to the front of my truck and had a second round of stings from the ones I'd missed. Ended up with welps all over my right ankle and up to my knee and by the time I'd shut down in TN that night my right ankle was HUGE, I ached in all my joints, and had a killer headache.

Tuesday morning--ankle still swollen, joints achy, head hurt, my throat was sore, it was storming in middle Tennessee, I picked up a very f'ed up trailer, James had to swap out trailers for a load that turned hot, and I had to fight my way into the NLR Pilot to fuel. Whew......

We did manage to get a run in Tuesday night after sundown that was quite nice, 3.94 miles but in hindsight I probably shouldn't have run. Was feeling lightheaded afterwards even though it was a very easy pace.

Unfortunately we also received a call while we were out from one of James' mom's friends that she (James' mom) had to be taken to the emergency room. It turned out to be nothing serious but it did give us quite a scare since we were already almost to Texas and the person that called didn't tell us what was going on. My mother-in-law has a hiatal hernia and acid reflux and absolutely refuses to eat correctly. She doesn't believe that food has anything to do with these issues and if you've ever tried to convince an elderly person of something that they don't want to believe then you know what we're up against. Anyway that's what was wrong with her Tuesday night, she'd ate something that day that disagreed with her and it caused some severe distress for her. Her friend that was there called an ambulance even though she could have driven my m.i.l. to the hospital much quicker. Her reasoning was that she thought my m.i.l. would get seen quicker if she arrived by ambulance even though it was non-life threatening. Sooo, not much sleep Tuesday night.

Wednesday--rain, rain, rain, and still all the same symptoms from the previous day. Saw the aftermath of a horrendous accident that killed 3 people north of Temple/Belton on I35. Bad, bad wreck...........

Thursday--had a 10 mile run scheduled that didn't get done because ankle swollen and sick still from the stinking ant stings. Oh, and rain.....

Friday--Sunshine! My ankle is not nearly as swollen, I feel better although kind of weak, and I'm home. And the sun is shining!!!

I do have a 5k grand prix race tomorrow and I've got a feeling it's going to be a slow one :(. Oh well, I don't have to place in order to ironman the series but it's hard on the ego to have a race when you're not feeling very well.

Oh, and dispatcher called this afternoon to let us know that we would be alternating Tuesday and Wednesday pickups in Tenn. from here on. James is thinking about getting on the 2 rounds/1 round schedule again which would mean we'd only have every other weekend off together like 1.5 years ago. The extra money would be nice but we'll have to discuss it in more detail later this weekend.