Voices in My Head

This morning there were very loud, very pushy voices in my head.
You need to skip today. You're sick. You need the rest.
No, you know that getting up and going will make you feel better.
But you didn't sleep well. You won't perform at your best this morning.
You'll feel better when you get there and get your blood going. You know you will. Just go.
Your knee hurts so much this morning; you don’t want to make it worse.
No. You know that you can modify whatever you need to for your knees; strengthening your muscles is the best thing for them.
Hey, you shut up. She worked hard this weekend and she doesn’t feel good; cut her some slack.
No, you shut up. This is good for her and she needs to go do what she can do. She’s strong enough to make it through this morning.
You’re stupid.
You’re lazy.
Your mom’s lazy.
Um, we have the same mom.
Yeah, well, she likes me more.
Does not.
Does too.

I finally just got up and brushed my teeth so they would shut the hell up.

Turns out, both blue voice and red voice were a little bit right. I did wake up this morning with a scratchy throat, runny nose, and achy muscles. I can’t tell whether this is springtime allergies or a late-season cold, but I feel rough. I also have a very painful and inflamed left knee. I had all kinds of justification for skipping this morning.

Then again, once I got up and started moving, gave my nose a good saline rinse (too much information? Sorry), and hydrated a bit, I realized that I would be able to make it through the class, even if my performance suffered a bit from my puniness.

Today was total body muscle failure day. Those are always fun. And by fun, of course I mean nearly unbearable torture. I had a really rough time with the lower body work today because of my knee, but I plowed through. And the little voice in blue was right; getting my heart pumping and some sweat going did make my throat and sinuses feel better, at least for a while.

After the workout was over and my heart rate slowed, though, I started to feel really drained and weak. I may have done a bit too much for being under the weather. And my left knee felt like it had been shattered with a steel mallet. I will be icing it intensely tonight.

All in all, I’m glad I got up and went to boot camp this morning. There were lots of new faces in class, and of course the seasoned recruits were there to motivate. My intention is to take a dose of NyQuil, get to bed early, and try to be well-rested for running day tomorrow. We’ll see how that goes.