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 Happy New Year!

Amid everything that went down this year, I've resumed recovery jogs and tempo runs: I've found a decent route without hills by our new place. It's not the most convenient option because it crosses a busy road, and so it took me a few months to find it, but flat terrain really makes a difference. I jogged it yesterday, and actually felt that it was restorative, not just easy.

Meanwhile, my stamina has been crap so I've put one particularly long hill to use too: I've also found a short tempo route that goes up and down it twice (and more if I repeat the loop but I'm not quite there yet). It's also mentally easier to get to the top of the hill if I run it clockwise; it's brutal counterclockwise. Funny how that works. It doesn't seem that visually misleading. Anyway, I've been doing this at least once a week for a month and I think I'm starting to feel less out of shape. It's been a long haul, and I can't be too hard on myself because I've still been running fairly regularly, but it would be nice to enjoy it more sometimes. And have "long" runs that are longer than 5-6 miles.

On the plus side, I ran 5.5 miles two days ago and have NOT gotten sick since.  I'm thrilled, knock wood. After my last "long" run a month ago, I got a cough and slight fever and other symptoms. It was probably just allergies again, but this year is special. I subsequently missed half of my clinic make up time (for a rotation that went online thanks to COVID), felt q-tips probe the depths of what I presume was my sphenoid sinus (seriously, it goes way back), and quarantined myself as best as I could with a small child whom I also kept from school until my results were negative, yay. And I had to re-remake up that clinic time during my holiday, super yay. 

Here's hoping for a better 2021 for everyone!