First Major Ironman Setback

So all was going well. I was hitting all the workouts my coach set for me. I started my own blog. I was excited about my Ironman adventure. Now, the whole time, I've just been one big complaining mess at work. I was lucky enough (I say lucky because I LOVED it, I know others that hate it) to be able to work in a year round school.

Here's the beauty of a year round school. You don't actually attend all year long. You attend the same as any other school, you just don't get your summer break. In a year round school, you get breaks all year long. On average, I had four three week breaks per year. They happened every nine weeks.

Back to my story... I think I uttered how much I missed my track off possibly three times last week. Everyone reminded that I only had two weeks until Spring Break... But it was driving me crazy because I needed a break ASAP.

Ask and ye shall recieve. At the same time I was complaining all week and tired at work, I also developed a nice little cough. It started innocent enough, here and there, and really liked to rear its ugly head after a run or a bike up a steep hill. The cough kept getting worse and worse all week. I was feeling yuckier and yuckier all week. At what point do you visit the doctor? I called Friday in the meager hopes that I could get in Friday evening, but the best they could do was Monday morning. Forget it, I ought to be better by Monday, shouldn't I?

Friday night was awful. I coughed and coughed and coughed. My poor husband... I emailed my coach and told him I couldn't do my prescribed bike on the trainer Friday night because I had a major coughing fit. He told me to see a doc. The way I felt Saturday morning--I WANTED to see the doc.

So I went into the after hours urgent care. The doc listened to my breathing and nonchalantly told me, I don't even need to do a chest x-ray, You've got pneumonia!

I was already feeling pretty bad on Saturday. The meds made me feel that much worse. Antibiotics and cough syrup with codeine.

I think I did my best impression of a bear in hibernation for the next four days. I slept, and then slept some more, and a little more. I took Mon-Wed. off work the following week. Today is Thursday. I'm still coughing here and there, but I'm feeling much better than I was. I think I'm going to try to jump in the pool and see how it goes. I'm pretty bummed because everything I read about the bug I caught, mycoplasma pneumonia, states that it can take up to 4-6 weeks for a full recovery... Ugh.......

I think I'm more embarassed that I hired a coach and he can only work with me for a week or two at time before I have problems again... Sigh...

There is one little piece of sunlight in this big mess. The doctor asked me if I found myself out of breath and tired. I told him that I work on the second floor at my school and I frequently got out of breath walking up the stairs, but I work out a lot and I assumed it was from that. He laughed at me and told me that I shouldn't be that tired. I just assumed I would always feel that way so long as I was training for an Ironman. Turns out, that's not necessarily the case! Yahoo!