Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Jack's Cure for the Common Cold
Tonight I decided to stop letting a cold kick my butt and went out and kicked my cold’s butt instead. With my mountain run on Sunday I felt obligated to get at least one more hill run in before then. Wifey was at her English course with the car so I was left with either the mountain bike or my scooter. After sticking my head out the front door and seeing the dark sky and feeling a breeze I opted for the scooter considering my still lingering cold.
So I suited up with my running gear, pulled some old jeans and a sweatshirt over this and drove to the neighboring town of Weingarten where our garden club is located. After stashing my jeans and sweatshirt in the garden house I limbered up and started heading for the hills. It is about 2K through a moor, across a field, and through a small tunnel under a highway before I reach the horse path at the edge of the forest. The horse path winds up to a logging trail that I follow up the side of the mountain. Although it hadn’t rained all day the trails were still quite muddy and slippery due to all the rain we had this week. It was quite treacherous on the horse path, I was glad when I finally reached the logging trail. The logging trail was at least a bit firmer, at least the parts that weren’t in use for a while. I had to dodge some major mud tracks on the log road at one point where they had been stacking logs with their large machines earlier in the day. Of course I slipped and got one foot soaking wet, it’s just my way!
As I hit the major hill climb I really felt the cold in my chest, I was wheezing like a chain-smoker within a short time. On the other side my legs felt powerful, a result of limited mileage and some slack time, I muscled my way up to the top doing my best to gasp for air as I went. A cold sucks!
Normally I turn right at the top of the hill and run along a flat stretch for 5 minutes or so. Tonight the log workers were blocking this street, so I had to turn left and run another 4-5 minutes up a second hill! This second hill knocked a bunch of evil looking green mucus loose from my lungs which I discarded and from that point on I could actually breath much better.
After reaching the top of the second hill I quickly got my bearing, recognizing the cross-trail and decided to keep going straight on a trail that I hadn’t tried before. This was a nice gradual downhill trail through some thick evergreens, then turned left and started slowly back uphill again. I still had a lot of time before I needed to turn around so I kept going. The trail passed a line of telephone poles that I was familiar with, then turned right and downhill again. So down I went until I reached another right which appeared to be a horse trail that I figured would lead me back up onto the road I need to take back.
So off I went done the horse trail, dodging logs, horse manure and just daydreaming about Lara in the saddle :-) I remember thinking man this is a nice trail, I could run on this trail forever. After another 10 minutes or so I started wondering if I was GOING TO run this trail forever because it just kept going and going and going. Just as I was thinking about turning around the trail when around a small curve and dropped downwards suddenly into a little clearing with another logging road. So I turn right and started up this wicked steep hill that no honest horse would ever take. After about 5 minutes I reach a trail that I recognized immediately to be the one I needed and headed back down the mountain the way I came. Whew!
Anyway I ran 1:26:05, or somewhere around 15K/9.3M.
Wait, wait, wait – so what’s up with the cold? Somewhere up there on the top of the mountain I just kind of forgot all about it. I was so into my run that I didn’t even pay attention to it anymore until I got home and my nose started getting clogged up again. It’s like once I get the lungs cleaned out and keep running I’m fine. Hopefully I won’t be worse tomorrow :-O
So I suited up with my running gear, pulled some old jeans and a sweatshirt over this and drove to the neighboring town of Weingarten where our garden club is located. After stashing my jeans and sweatshirt in the garden house I limbered up and started heading for the hills. It is about 2K through a moor, across a field, and through a small tunnel under a highway before I reach the horse path at the edge of the forest. The horse path winds up to a logging trail that I follow up the side of the mountain. Although it hadn’t rained all day the trails were still quite muddy and slippery due to all the rain we had this week. It was quite treacherous on the horse path, I was glad when I finally reached the logging trail. The logging trail was at least a bit firmer, at least the parts that weren’t in use for a while. I had to dodge some major mud tracks on the log road at one point where they had been stacking logs with their large machines earlier in the day. Of course I slipped and got one foot soaking wet, it’s just my way!
As I hit the major hill climb I really felt the cold in my chest, I was wheezing like a chain-smoker within a short time. On the other side my legs felt powerful, a result of limited mileage and some slack time, I muscled my way up to the top doing my best to gasp for air as I went. A cold sucks!
Normally I turn right at the top of the hill and run along a flat stretch for 5 minutes or so. Tonight the log workers were blocking this street, so I had to turn left and run another 4-5 minutes up a second hill! This second hill knocked a bunch of evil looking green mucus loose from my lungs which I discarded and from that point on I could actually breath much better.
After reaching the top of the second hill I quickly got my bearing, recognizing the cross-trail and decided to keep going straight on a trail that I hadn’t tried before. This was a nice gradual downhill trail through some thick evergreens, then turned left and started slowly back uphill again. I still had a lot of time before I needed to turn around so I kept going. The trail passed a line of telephone poles that I was familiar with, then turned right and downhill again. So down I went until I reached another right which appeared to be a horse trail that I figured would lead me back up onto the road I need to take back.
So off I went done the horse trail, dodging logs, horse manure and just daydreaming about Lara in the saddle :-) I remember thinking man this is a nice trail, I could run on this trail forever. After another 10 minutes or so I started wondering if I was GOING TO run this trail forever because it just kept going and going and going. Just as I was thinking about turning around the trail when around a small curve and dropped downwards suddenly into a little clearing with another logging road. So I turn right and started up this wicked steep hill that no honest horse would ever take. After about 5 minutes I reach a trail that I recognized immediately to be the one I needed and headed back down the mountain the way I came. Whew!
Anyway I ran 1:26:05, or somewhere around 15K/9.3M.
Wait, wait, wait – so what’s up with the cold? Somewhere up there on the top of the mountain I just kind of forgot all about it. I was so into my run that I didn’t even pay attention to it anymore until I got home and my nose started getting clogged up again. It’s like once I get the lungs cleaned out and keep running I’m fine. Hopefully I won’t be worse tomorrow :-O
# posted by Jack : 8:01 PM
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Sometimes when I would work out with a cold, it got better faster. I'm not sure why but maybe it jsut needed an extra push to force it to clear out the lingering...uh...goo. Ewwwwww!
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