Today is Monday, AKA distance day. We did a 9 mile run around the route called Kansas that we frequently did during running season. My knee started hurting a little bit which was disappointing, but it will get better once I am not running on it every single day. I will hopefully have a nice MotionBased map soon.
Thanksgiving Camp at Burke in 5 days!
Ian

It seems as if it’s been raining here at Holderness for the past two days straight. We haven’t had any honest sunshine since late on Tuesday, but everyone’s spirits seem to defy the weather. Winter sports started yesterday, and since it seems about half the school participates in snow sports, we are all hopeful. The rink is already operational, and though the ice is pretty soft, varsity hockey tryouts are still going.

The nordic team seems to have swelled this year with new recruits and beginners wanting to stay in shape for another of their sports. We held our first official practice today. We went on a small warm-up run and did about a half hour of strength.

It’s a little scary that the first race is less than a month away, (December 10) but I finally feel 100 percent again after my illness. It started on the Monday, the 6th of October, with a little sore throat at lunch. By dinner, I was essentially bedridden. I spent the next three days practically useless, lying in the nurse’s ward. I missed three xc races, and did quite poorly in two more. I had what the doctor described as Adenovirus, a very aggressive and persistent illness that strikes hard early and goes away very slowly. I had a stinging, sore and swollen throat, headache, a cough, conjunctivitis, and a thyroid infection all at once. I had to sit out for three weeks, and when I started running again, I was constantly gasping for breath, even when my legs weren’t burning. When I started racing again, I coughed like you wouldn’t believe and had my first three asthma attacks ever. When I saw him again about this, the doctor originally didn’t know what was ailing me, but then he told me that the virus had swollen some mucus-producing cells in my lower bronchioles which in turn caused my airway muscles to contract, causing the asthma. He prescribed me Singulair to clear up the swelling and the mucus over time and an Albuterol inhaler to control the asthma on the spot if needed. It has taken me about five weeks to really get back to full health. I think I would have preferred Mono.

Anyway, NEPSAC XC running Championships were at Vermont Academy, on sort of a rainy, overcast day quite like the one we have in Plymouth, NH right now. I finally had an inhaler, and I had been on the Singulair for about a week and a half, which both turned out to be good decisions. The race course at VA was in decent condition because it is fairly sandy soil, which made the race a lot easier to run in the rain. I would say the thing I did well that race was not go out too hard. I was still testing my body because I was only about 90% healthy, so once I knew I felt good I started passing kids. As I came down the last hill though, a top 20 place got snatched from me as a KUA kid dove—I mean laid out—to just get the place by a hair. I didn’t feel too bad though, I had 24th place in last year’s race, and I wasn’t even full strength this year. Where our boys team wasn’t full strength, the girls team shined. Kelsey Nichols, and Andrea Fisher (reppin my hometown!!) both nordic skiers, placed second and sixth individually and led our girls team to a second place finish overall. (Thanks to coach Mike Carrigan, who was awesome all season long, assuming two coaching positions for almost 30 athletes when the assistant coach had to take a medical leave!)

In other news, I celebrated my 18th birthday on Wednesday, officially making me an OJ skier.

And that’s it for now. I hope to post much more frequently now that ski season is nearly upon us, so keep checking in.
Ian