Training hard and staying healthy

My kids have been sick this week. My son has been sick for most of the past week.

Last winter, I was sick for 3+ weeks. I got sick again for a similar time period in May. And then again in August, only longer. I think that I made a big training mistake last winter that left me in a run-down state. I trained for a road marathon through the fall and never really took a serious break from training after the race.

Massanutten seemed so close, and I was tired when I started training for the race.

This year, I've been on an extended rest cycle. I've run fewer than 500 miles since the first of August. I've been lifting regularly through that time period, but my training has not been running-intensive.

If I stay healthy for the next week, rather than getting sick like my children, I'll hope that indicates my body is not as drained as it was this time last year.

For consistency in training, I need to stay healthy this winter. If that means more rest days or fewer miles, so be it. I'd rather rest when I feel run down than rest for a few weeks because I went too far.

Dropping my running pace the last couple weeks seems to be helping. My running is fun again after a period where I wasn't really enjoying it.

It's snowing outside right now, although this storm is mostly hitting MA rather than VT. But, on Sunday, we may get hit with a huge snowstorm, which should lead to amazing skiing that day and into next week.