First 100 mile week of 2015, and asthma woes

Only one rest day this week, but I didn't overdo it on any of my 6 days of exercise, so I'm still feeling pretty good.  I almost took today off, but I knew if I didn't get off the couch and ride, I wouldn't get off the couch all day.  So I made myself go out and do a sprint ride.  I just installed a cadence sensor on my bike a few days ago.  It turns out I am most comfortable riding between 75 and 85 rpms.  I've heard that 85-105 is optimal.  When I was riding the other day, trying to achieve 90 rpms felt wrong and too sprint-like for an average ride.  Since I was doing a shorter ride today, I decided to make it my goal to stay at 90+.  It was HARD!  My ride was an out&back, and I was already pretty fatigued by the halfway point.  My legs were burning pretty bad from the constant sprinting effort.  I kept up my effort for almost the entire ride though.  (I did allow myself a few more downhill-coasts during the second half, mainly because my legs were too beat to keep pedaling...)  In the end, I'm sure that everyone has their own optimal cadence, and I need to find mine.  It's probably a bit faster than what I have been doing, if I want a proper workout, but it may not be too high over 90 either.  Certainly it will be good for me to raise my rpms occasionally just to work the muscles differently.  And perhaps as time goes on it will become more comfortable for me to spin faster rather than slower.

This week :

M : bike 29.6 (15.6mph)

T : bike 20 (16.7 mph)

W : run 4.2

R : bike 17.1  (15.8 mph)

F :  AM run 4.4 / PM bike 20.9  (16.4) 

Su : bike 13.2  (18.1 mph)
total bike : 101.2
total run : 8.5

Running has been getting increasingly more difficult for me.  Allergies for myself and many other people I know have been getting worse every year, and I've been hearing that the pollen is pretty heavy right now.  Claritin is just barely keeping my runny nose in check, but I am getting itchy eyes/throat most afternoons.  When I run, it is so hard to breathe it hardly feels like I used my inhaler.  This has been making me more and more frustrated, so I made a doctor's appt to talk about options.  The doctor had me do a spirometry test, and plans to refer me to a pulmonologist after looking at the results.  (spell-check doesn't think pulmonologist is a word...wierd)  The spirometry test involves breathing out as hard and fast as possible into a little machine, and then continuing to attempt to push more air out of your lungs while a nurse says "keep going keep going keep going keep going" over and over long after you are sure there can't possibly be any more air to push out.  You do that about 3 times, then you get an albuterol treatment from a nebulizer.  I haven't used a nebulizer since that blissful day in 9th grade when I finally got to start using an inhaler instead, after years of using the nebulizer twice a day.  Ah, memories...  After the albuterol treatment, I had to breathe hard and fast into the machine about 3 more times.  And now I wait... I hope I can get this problem resolved soon and that it doesn't involve lots of expensive doctor visits/tests!

In other news, school ended on Friday!  All that's left now is teacher's afternoon out tomorrow, final staff meeting on Tuesday, and filling out/turning in progress reports.