A roller coaster ride

This week has been quite a bit of a Roller coaster ride. The first half of the week was quite normal, but mid week I was suddenly hit by a viral infection (severe throat and body ache, accompanied by mild fever). I was not able to rest sufficiently on Thursday as I had a action packed work day on Friday. But, after that I was able to take complete rest from Friday evening to Saturday evening (tons of sleep, with food breaks & snatches of India's disappointing performance in the second test against South Africa).

By Saturday evening I was almost back to normal. To confirm the same, I decided to go for a short 3km run and a well deserved cup of coffee at my favorite coffee shop, to celebrate my recovery. The run was almost effortless and the blues of the viral were blown away. I needed this run before I attempted my Sunday morning run.

Sunday morning I started early, at 7.45 which has been the quickest start time for a long time. With temperatures going up, even a half an hour delay makes a huge difference. I managed to complete the 11km run in about 1hr 05minutes, which is quite close to my regular pace, thought this was a mixed with walk and run. Which clearly means that the lower frequency of runs (now restricted to 1 or 2 runs a week) have resulted in my losing my running rhythm (without really the finish times).

But the highlight has been the super quick recovery from illness and I have only endurance sport (distance running) to thank. The quality of rest is now so much better, which helps the body bounce back in double quick time. Its almost as if the illness is like a 50km run and you need about a day to recover and get back to normal. I would never have imagined myself running so soon after recovering from an illness.

So along with the known benefits of regular running, like a 40% reduction in chances of a heart attack, weight reduction, better energy levels & stamina, there is a new one - super quick recovery from illness, esp. flu. (and this would also extend to bigger things like surgeries).