Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired

I've trying to be more consistent with my workouts, but my body just isn't cooperating. My stomach felt horrible last week and working out was not an option until Thursday. I'm not sure what is was. I laid low for awhile to let things settle.

Thursday: 1 hour - 6.2 miles on the x trainer

Friday: 1 hour 15 min. - 20 miles - Big Easy Road Ride (Slow 15 mph pace. I felt great, and enjoyed being out on the road enjoying the scenery.)

Saturday: 600m swim (Lightning closed pool! How does an indoor pool get closed by weather??) then 25 minutes on treadmill at 10 min/ mi. pace until stomach cramped.

Sunday: Sinus Infection returned!! Again. I haven't felt good on a regular basis since spring break. My personal theory is a combination a snotty 5th graders and poor air quality at school are wreaking havoc on my health.

Monday: Swam 1300m in pool with clogged sinus. Picked up new dose of antibiotics.

Side Note: Watched a documentary on Marathons, and now I plan to start looking at running longer distances. I may consider a 13.1 race by this time next year.

Swim and Bike at the Y

Decent workout tonight. 

Swam 1700m total- 200m warm up, 3 sets of 500m at about 10 min each.

Biked 15.5 miles in 1 hour Avg HR of 125 bpm

My strength is fine, but endurance is down from a lack training regularly. I had a hard time breathing the last 10 minutes on the bike. I still have some issues going on with my breathing, which bothers me. I hope I'm still recovering from sinus stuff and it will go away soon.

The Results are in...

I ran the 2 Much Fun 5k for Richland 2 on Saturday, and I was very excited by the results. Despite feeling horrible he past 2 weeks and not training much  I managed a nice time of 26:03. I placed 42nd overall and 5th in age group of 12 runners.

I started the race hard and quickly had my hr over 170, which is high for me. My lungs felt stressed and I coughed a good bit at the start. I ran the race keeping certain people in sight. The first mile was fairly flat and I ran the split in about 8:42. The second mile started downhill and heading into some woods before heading uphill sharply to start the 3rd mile. Heading over the hill was tough, and as I reached the top I looked to start passing the folks in the group ahead of me. I made it past them slowly over the next mile, and then pushed as hard as I could the last stretch to make sure I did not get passed back, which usually happens to me late in races.

I lost track of the 2nd mile split, and felt if I had run a 27 or 28 min. 5k that would be good for the way I'd been feeling. I forgot to stop my watch at the finish, and looked at it later to see a 26:30, which I new was over the exact time. I was shocked. My hr even hit 180 several times during the race and was over 185 at the finish.

Forced Run Subsides Headache

I have not run or exercise since Sunday. My sinus issue has kept my head spinning, my chest congested, and my energy low. I visited the Doc on Tuesday and went on the Z Pack. It's starting to help. I planned to ride a tad last night, but when I got home from work, my head began to pound and I lost all energy.

Today, I forced myself to run at the Sandhills. The 2 Much Fun 5K is this Saturday, and I wanted to get some work in before the race. I had hoped to work hard the past three weeks to get ready, but that has been a bust.

I started slow with the pounding head, but ran okay, and pushed on the big hill and the long slow finish climb. My chest still feels like there's a brick on it, and I fought for air a good bit. My nose is not as clogged as it has been this week, so there's hope I will feel better by Saturday.

I did not time myself, so there's no data to report. The good news is that post workout, my headache disappeared. It's great to know a bit of hard work opened my head up, and maybe I'm turning the corner on this sinus infection.

Blocked Sinus, Congested = Slow Run

Went for another shot at the 5k course for the upcoming race at the Sandhills this Saturday. I was going to run with some other folks from work in the race, but we did not meet up, so I headed out on my own. I had not run solo in awhile so I pushed the pace more to see if I could put a good time together.

Running was labored, and my HR was up to 15o fast. I finished with a time of about 19:30. Not great, but at least I did not stop and walk.

I was thinking I could get a sub 27 minute run this weekend, but now I wondering if that's possible.

What's Going On...

Went for a training run at the Sandhills today. A change of plans and an offer from my wife, and I ended up switching to running with Amy on a different series of trails.

We were excited to head out and the first mile was a lot of fun, since we left our usual trail for something new we had spotted. I was a nice section - wooded, rolling, and following a stream. Something happened about 20 minutes in and both of us started really struggling. I was short of breath, and my legs just felt dead. I don't know what it was. Maybe it was the heat, time of day (5 pm right after work), over training, air quality??? Who knows. Maybe it was a combination of all factors. I just don't want to ever feel that again. cutting back on running the past month seems to have caught up with me. I enjoy swimming and biking more, and seem to favor those workouts.

In all, we ran - or walked - about 3 1/2 miles. I stopped checking the time and cals burned and don't really care to worry about it anyways.

Cross Training

Trying to get back into a regular thing again. Tonight was swim and bike at the Y

Swim: 100 - 500- 500- 200m - Total 1300m (I timed one 500m at about 9 min.)

I could the burn in my shoulders from taking so much time away from swimming. My form felt good and I kept a nice ryhthm.

Bike: 15.88mi. in an hour on the bike. I burned about 700 cal.

I felt out of breath the last 10 min and really had to push to get my speed up to try from 16 miles. Not training regularly has caught up with my exercise asthma I believe.