New month, new plan

I spent most of November in and out of a bad head cold, resulting in no running for the entire last week of the month.  The violent coughing finally subsided enough for me to resume running on Friday of this week.  Thankfully the afternoons have been in the high 50s, if it was much colder I probably would have had to wait even longer before running again. It's supposed to get cold again this coming week, I'm hoping I'll be able to continue running without bringing back the cough but I will be taking it one day at a time and trying really hard to stay healthy!

While running over the past few days, and thinking about the past month, I made the decision not to start marathon training until January.  I wanted to jump straight in, but I've decided that's not the smartest decision.  I need to make sure I am fully healthy before I start putting the demands of marathon training on my body.  So, December will be about running for fun.  I still hope to keep my mileage at 25-30 miles a week, but I'll run whatever feels good distance and pace-wise.  I think I'm going to try to get to 5 days a week of running so that each run can be a bit shorter, but I may or may not manage to fit 5 days into the schedule.  Really, I'll be taking it one day at a time! 

This week : 

 M : rest

T : circuit training 35:00

walk 1 mile

W : rest

R : TRX 30:00

F : run 4 / 8:09 / 210 ft

Sa : run 6.7 / 7:53 / 341 ft

Su : TRX 40:00

run 5.1 / 744 / 384 ft

total miles : 15.9

I realize that running 3 days in a row after 7 days off may or may not be the smartest choice, especially given how sore my legs have been from Thursday's TRX, but I just had to go enjoy the warm(ish) sunshine!  It was hard to keep the runs as short as I did, but I did manage to contain myself and not run 10 milers.  

Quality, not quantity.

It's been getting hard to drag myself out the door for exercise lately.  And even harder to convince myself to run for more than 30 minutes.  Part of the reason is the sheer exhaustion that comes at the end of a school year.  Another part of the reason is I'm just really tired of running the same loop all the time, and lacking the motivation to get more creative with my routes. On the bright side, after months of nightmare-filled, non-restful, sleep, I have finally gotten tired enough to start sleeping normally again.  So that is awesome.  That plus only one more week of school hopefully equals me feeling like a normal person again soon, and getting my mileage back up.  My legs are strong right now, and my lungs are catching up.  I've been really pleased with my shorter/faster runs, and it's about time to start trying to add distance without losing the pace.  As soon as I get motivated again.

I have noticed that a big part of successful breathing right now is constantly reminding myself to breathe in as deep as I can, every breath.  I often catch myself in the middle of a run breathing too shallowly, and that obviously does not help.  You would think that breathing in all the way would just happen naturally...but apparently it doesn't.  I can always feel the burst of energy in my legs when I start breathing deep again after catching myself breathing shallow.  Crazy stuff.

Super happy with my speed in the shorter runs this week!  Was great to have Kenny back at the Pub Run after his long break due to shin splints.  Got to pick up the pace and add a few small hills now that he is back!  On Tuesday's run I ran hard for the whole thing, downhills included, since I've decided I'm no longer allowed to be a baby about downhills.  I suppose it's not surprising how much faster I got when I stopped jogging the downhills...  Thursday's run was a quick sprint in between the cable guy and getting out to the barn to trail ride with friends.  As it was, they had to start without me, but I caught up to them eventually.  Getting a few miles in was more important than showing up to the barn on time.

I was happy to get back on the bike yesterday, finally a day without too much wind!  I did end up getting soaked for about 4 miles in the middle, but that was alright.  Just a pocket of rain showers that was centered over the turnaround spot in my out & back ride.  Once I rode back out of the storm, the roads were dry.  I took the whole ride pretty hard, and could feel that my run sprints are paying off on the bike!

This week : 

M : Pub Run 4.1 / 7:31 / 112 ft

T : run 5 / 7:05 / 423 ft

R : TRX 30/10 x30

run 3.7 / 6:52 / 259 ft (5k sprint + cooldown)

horseback ride 50 minutes

F : sweatfest 35 minutes / 15.1 mph : sprinting through commercials

Sa : bike 27.5 / 17.9 mph / 2136 ft

Su : long run 11.3 / 8:07 / 1001 ft

bike total : 36.3 miles

run total : 24.1 miles

Multitasking while waiting for the cable guy to show up.

Reading and planking.

So much gorgeousness in one photo.

4 months of work building up my lungs has gone down the drain

Ugh.  So, I'm running again.  My ankle doesn't hurt at all for walking/running, it only hurts if it has to twist (basically, it only hurts if I unclip from bike pedals).  I discovered pretty quickly that my lungs are right back where they were 4 months ago when I started building them back up from my last bout of tendonitis.  I have 2 weeks to strengthen them before my next race.

This week : 

M : sweatfest 33 minutes / 9 miles / 16.4 mph

Pub Run 3.1 / 7:48 / 0 ft

T : 17 min TRX

run 3.4 miles / 7:28 / 39 ft

W : bike 20.8 / 18 mph / 1512 ft

R : 17 min TRX

run 5 miles / 7:42 / 147 ft

Sa : run 6.2 / 7:22 / 343 ft

Su : run 5 miles / 7:06 / 335 ft

total bike miles : 29.8

total run miles : 22.8

My heart rate was through the roof on my runs this week.  I guess it's understandable for today's run at a 7:06 pace after my time off, but my 5 mile jog on Thursday resulted in a heart rate profile that looks like one I would normally see after a half marathon, not after a jog!

This is my HR profile for a run on February 19 at the same pace as this Thursday's run.

This is Thursday's HR profile

And this is Sunday's.

Saturday's is similar to Sunday's except the bars are longer and the suffer score is higher, because it was a longer run.  And it says "Extreme" instead of "Tough"...

My heart rate made it above 200 a few times this week...it never got that high in the 10 mile race I did in February...weak lungs are making my heart work awfully hard right now!  My solution to this problem is to run as hard as I can, every time I run, until my lungs are beaten into submission.  It was working great until halfway through today's run when my legs decided it wasn't fun anymore.

The brief return of shorts weather

Last Sunday, I decided that my break from early morning exercise should be over, so I planned to get up early Monday and do a sweatfest ride.  I was hoping to get back into my early morning routine, because it was working really well for me, until I quit getting up so early.  I managed to get up Monday morning and do my trainer ride, but I gave up again after that.  I've been consistently getting up around 5, but 4 is just too early right now.  It's been too hard for me to get to bed by 8.  Also, it seems slightly silly to be getting up super early to exercise at 4:30 AM when the weather is gorgeous and warm-ish in the afternoons.

This week : 

M : 30 min trainer (7.3)

4.8 mile Pub Run

T : bike 19.7

W : sprint bike 13.4 (19.4 mph, 886 ft)

F : bike 25.3 w/Byron

Sa : bike 13.3 (race photographer)

total bike miles : 79.3

When I first started biking, I felt like it did nothing for my lungs.  They ended up getting weaker because biking was not keeping them in shape like running did.  Now my lungs have gotten so weak, biking is hard.  I have been getting faster on the bike, and now my legs are strong enough for me to ride pretty hard, but I keep running out of oxygen and having to slow down.  I'm hoping that since biking is now making my lungs work harder, it will also help me start to strengthen them back up...

The good, the bad, and the ugly

The good : I can breathe again!
The bad : Oxygen access is depressingly expensive!
The ugly : I'm looking for a new bike and it's hard to find one that is pretty and semi-affordable.


So, my appointment with the pulmonologist finally happened, after 2+ months of waiting.  He talked to me for awhile, then had me do a bunch of breathing tests with a nurse.  One of them involved me walking up and down a hallway with her checking my oxygen level on the little finger thingy every time I passed her.  Since the air conditioning was frigid, my cold fingers kept messing up the reading.  She tried having me hold my hand under hot running water for awhile, but it got cold again within about a minute.  So she resorted to just vigorously rubbing my hand every time the number got too low.  We probably should have just done that test outside.  The other test involved various kinds of breathing into a mouthpiece hooked to a computer, followed by an albuterol treatment, followed by the breathing stuff again. The albuterol treatment smelled like my childhood.  After all the tests, the doctor came back to talk about my results.  He said a score of 80 is normal.  My scores were in the 90s before the albuterol treatment, and between 110 and 130 after. I'm glad he believed me when I said I can't breathe when I run, because I'm pretty sure those tests didn't show that anything is wrong.  They probably would have been more accurate if I had ran 3 miles right before testing.

He wrote me an Rx for Severent, which is a long-acting medication that will keep my airways open for 12 hours.  I take one inhalation at least 30 min before exercise, and then I am good to go.  I have to carry my rescue inhaler with me just in case I need it, but so far I haven't.  I used the Severent for the first time on Thursday morning, and it was amazing.  It's been so long since I got to run without feeling the asthma constriction in my lungs!  Unfortunately, one Severent discus costs $84.  I almost had a heart attack in CVS when I saw that number pop up on the screen.  There are 60 doses, and since I am only running 3 days a week, I could make it last quite awhile.  But the instructions are very clear about the fact that the discus needs to be thrown out after 6 weeks, because the medication doesn't stay good much longer than that.  I imagine I can stretch it for more than 6 weeks before it gets too weak to help me, but I'm guessing it won't last as long as I could stretch out those 60 doses.  All I can do is hope that this medicine helps get my lungs back into shape quickly, so I can stop using it before it drains my bank account.

This week : 

M : bike 23.1

T : run 4.3

W : rest day

R : run 4.6

F : bike 35

Sa : bike 30.4, run 3.3

Su : bike 18

bike total : 106.6 

run total : 12.2

My legs were dead on Monday's ride.  Probably has something to do with the fact that I didn't take any days off last week.  My mind says that a 3 mile jog is the same thing as a day off, but it appears that my body does not agree.  So, I skipped Wednesday's bike day.  I felt pretty good on Friday's ride, but then I was up late Friday night, so I was dragging on Saturday's ride.  And even though I went to bed early last night, I was also dragging on today's ride.  I guess taking only one day off after 13 days on isn't enough.  I want to continue with the 4 rides/3 runs per week though.  Looks like I will have to try doubling up on a few days so that I can go back to taking 2 days off per week.  Or I will have to bike less.  Decisions, decisions.

I have been getting up super early in the mornings to exercise before work.  I can do this for running any day, but biking can only happen on days that I don't have to work until 9, because there just isn't enough daylight for me to get on the bike any earlier than about 6:30, and I know that sunrise is getting later and later.  After this week, I won't be able to bike outside in the early mornings any more because I will be at school no later than 8 every day.  I was going to wait til winter to by a trainer, but I'm thinking I might want to buy one sooner so that I can bike in the mornings starting soon.  I'm hoping to be babysitting several afternoons after school, so my afternoon exercise time will be limited.  I was also going to wait til spring to buy a new bike (I need a bike that actually fits me), but at this point I feel like I may as well buy everything I need at once and be done with it.  Then, I can put my current bike on the trainer, and have the new bike handy for the days when I have time to ride outside.  Since the trainer will shred my tire, it seems easier to have two bikes than to have to change the tire every time I ride...But if I manage to talk myself out of buying a bike now, I will probably buy a cheap wheel instead, and then keep the cheap wheel on the trainer, and have my current wheel for outside rides.  It will be way easier to switch out the wheels than to change a tire every time.

In other news, I added a bunch of hills back into my run on Saturday, not sure if it would be worse for my foot or not.  So far, it appears that it was not detrimental.  Hooray!

I want this bike, because it is beautiful and blue.

But I want it to not be $1400+, and I want it to not have hydraulic brakes/shifters.

Because hydraulics are expensive to maintain.

This bike is also pretty.

But it's $2400.

And I probably really don't need an aero bike...it's not like I've picked up bike racing. Yet.

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.