My Training Plan Became a Bowl of Soup

I knew some annoying illness could happen at any time during my training plan. However, I was not expecting it to happen right at the beginning. I’m not going to get discouraged though. There’s still plenty of time.

Officially, my twelve week training plan starts next week but I thought I would get started with some easy stuff a bit early. So, Sunday I came up with a plan that worked for me for this week. My goal is to do an Iron Girl Sprint Triathlon this year. I picked Iron Girl because they are very good at providing tons of information to the beginner. They even offer a free 12 week sprint tri training plan and that is what I’m using for my planning. My plan was nothing too ambitious, two short swims, two short runs, one longer run, and one short bike ride. I was so excited just to get started working towards this goal that started out a few years ago as something that I only dreamed of doing. I had serious doubts it could ever actually be possible.

Unfortunately, as often goes when you’re a transplant recipient and your immune system is suppressed, I came down with something, tonsillitis to be specific, Week 1 Day 1 of my plan. I ignored “If you can imagine it, You can achieve it. If you can dream it, You can become it.” – William Arthur Ward the early signs on Monday and did my planned swim anyway. And, as what always happens when I don’t listen to my body, woke up the next day feeling much worse. I’ve learned my lesson the hard way that the harder I push my body when it’s sick, the longer the inevitable recovery time will be. So, at this point I am listening and will be giving my body the rest it needs. And hopefully in a few days will be back on track with my training plan.

In the mean time, my getting healthy again plan involves rest, antibiotics, and this bowl of healthy Indian soup which my husband has kindly made for me called Rasam, shown in the cover photo above. I read an article online about a home remedy for swollen tonsils which involves a broth of ground black pepper, chili, garlic, ginger, turmeric and tomato puree. It occurred to me that the ingredients sounded a lot like this Indian soup I’ve had called Rasam. We tried to see if we could get it at a couple of local Indian restaurants but they were all closed on Tuesdays. So, my husband found this video for how to make it and he did a great job. I really think it’s helping and recommend it as a something to eat when you have swollen tonsils.

I might actually try using Rasam as a recovery food as well since the garlic, ginger, and turmeric are also excellent overall anti-inflammatory foods.