In sickness and in health

Good news- I don't have pneumonia! Yes, that was a possibility, and yes, you are allowed to imagine I said that in Professor Farnsworth's voice. The bad news is I have some lingering inflammation from whatever upper respiratory/strep throat type infection I had a couple of weeks ago. But a chest X-ray was taken and my lungs look fine. That's very good news, considering I have some important singing gigs coming up. I just hope I've recovered enough by then to not sound like I have been sounding lately (bad).

I debated whether or not I should really be going out running in the cold when my chest feels sore and I just bought a $200 inhaler to help me get over this thing, but finally decided that as long as I'm not exhausting myself, exercise is probably more helpful to my immune system than harmful. I also feel better than I have in a few days, so why not?

Today was my first day of hill repeats. This was actually less torturous than I thought it would be, probably because I paid close attention to my form and didn't push to go too fast. I did go a little faster than my normal jogging pace, just to get the full benefit of the muscle-building aspects of the exercise. I did the full 15 minutes, which I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do. I was able to do 8 repeats in that time- running up, then walking down, a hill in my neighborhood.

My plan is this: every Wednesday when I'm doing my hill repeats, I'll add another repeat. So next week it will be nine repeats, then ten, etc. When I reach 20, I'll either move to a steeper hill or start jogging down the hill rather than walking.

This morning was my introduction to nutrition final. Tomorrow morning is my anatomy and physiology final. I'm looking forward to next week, when I'll have time to do things other than study.