"Neue Kraft fühlend..."

"The third movement...alternates slow sections in a modal F with faster sections, "Neue Kraft fühlend" (with renewed strength), in D. Beethoven wrote this piece after recovering from a serious illness..." - from Wikipedia entry for the Beethoven quartet in A minor, Opus 132.

As I write this, I'm listening to the third movement of the quartet in A minor, Beethoven's thank you note to God for restoring his health. You can hear it, along with a short commentary at the following link:

NPR in performance

Like many runners (and a few composers), I am a hypochondriac and every little ache and pain, every bout with a common cold virus, affects me more than I like to admit. During and after an illness I become listless and moody. I seem unable to do simple things or maintain any semblance of my normal routine. So when I woke up three weeks ago with a bad sore throat, I was not happy.

Did I get sick because I overdid it with my training? I had just completed a week of heavy mileage, a demanding track workout, a tempo run, and a long run in frigid temperatures that I extended beyond what was reasonable on that day so that I would hit a stupid weekly mileage target. I woke up the next morning and I knew I was in for trouble. Overnight I went from being supremely confident in my fitness and consistent in my training to being unable to drag myself out for 3-mile runs. I took days off, but didn't feel any more rested. This lasted for about a week.

The next week, as I started feeling better, I tried to get back into the training routine, but my body wasn't ready. Every run felt hard, regardless of how easy the pace was. I did NOT want to be out running. I thought maybe it was the cold weather, but after running on a treadmill one day, I decided it wasn't the weather, it was just me. I wondered if I had developed a secondary sinus infection, and started taking drugs to control that. After two weeks, I still felt weak. I kept telling myself that all those months of steady training wouldn't disappear overnight, but it was hard to believe.

Finally, in the third week after first getting sick, I started feeling some enthusiasm for exercise again. It was a welcome feeling, as you can imagine.

All this angst over a common cold! And yet, off the top of my head I can think of half a dozen running friends who have dealt with much worse setbacks recently -- illness in some cases, injury in others. It makes me a little ashamed to make such a big deal out of such a minor setback. But even after a minor illness, how good it is when you finally start feeling better, when you finally start running "Neue Kraft fühlend..." -- with renewed strength.

Sometimes that feeling takes you past where you were before. I was thrilled to see my friend Terry recover from a broken collarbone last spring by having a better summer of running than the previous year. Another friend, Bruce Davie, came back from knee surgery to post his best mile times in years. Dr. Bob Chasen, father of Weymouth runner Ben Chasen, recovered from a serious ailment last fall and reached the rare milestone of winning a race in his fifth straight decade. Looking forward, here's hoping that Josh Seeherman, a frequent commenter on these blogs recovers from his knee surgery and surpasses his previous level of fitness. Here's hoping that Chris Barnicle can put his mono and blood-iron issues behind him and run better than he ever has before, if not this season then next. Here's hoping that the divinity takes pity on all of us convalescents and allows us to return to our chosen sport with renewed strength.