Rabbit season. Duck season. Flu season.

Last week I wrote about how I had finally overcome my continuous coughing and unplanned running hiatus and was “back at it.” Well, unbeknownst to me my best-laid plans were about to go off the rails before they even really began.

My Sunday evening started with my gym bag packed and me raring to hit the pool at the crack of dawn for some much overdue lap swimming. However, the only workout I’d be doing this week involved a 4am sprint to the bathroom.

Bug off.

I’ll spare you the gory details, but let’s just say that my body was offering “two exits, no waiting” for the next few hours. Double yuck. I’ve heard that throwing up is supposedly the equivalent to doing 300 sit-ups so at least I can say I was blasting my abs pretty hard all day.

Now I thought that perhaps I had a nasty case of food poisoning, but with food poisoning, once you get rid of all of the offending parties from your body you typically start to feel a bit better after about 12-18 hours. Come 4pm on Monday and I was feeling even worse (if that was possible).

Cut to a few hours later and me at urgent care getting an IV drip as the doctor informs me that according to my bloodwork I most likely have a nice case of gastroenteritis (aka the stomach flu). Yup, another unplanned running hiatus.

No maintenance runs this past week, no speed work, and nay nay to any crosstraining. Just plenty of fluids, naps and a lingering feeling of fatigue and general malaise. On the upside, I’ve gotten to binge watch a few more TV series that I’d neglected this past year.  Narcos: Season 3- check. Silicon Valley: Season 4- all caught up now.

Nasty little mothers.

On the downside, this is yet another speed bump on my road to getting back into proper running shape. This is typically the time of year where I’m starting to taper in preparation for the LA Marathon. Right now I’m focused on the Atlanta Half Marathon, my first half of the year, which is now just under three weeks away. This latest health hiccup won’t keep me from running the race, but it will make me temper my race day expectations.

My goal is to kick to the remainder of this flu over the next few days and when my body gives me the “thumbs up” to get back out there for real this time… provided I don’t catch the cooties next. From what I hear, those things are nasty.

Cover your mouth when you cough… and Run on!

Have you or your family caught a bug this running season?