This week was 65 miles of running and 6000 yards of swimming -- training log is here.
Tough, but better than last week. I'm now very certain that the Nifedipine was the cause of my lead legs last week and the week before. It's been hot and humid this week as well, but I still feel so much better. Like close to my old self. My asthma has still been acting up some, which is frustrating - there's been some allergen in the air that has been giving me a splitting headache when I go outside and red rimmed stinging eyes - I think that's the cause.
Friday's tempo, despite the cool temps was a bit of a struggle - my breathing got tough and I needed the help of my teammates to get through it (some day I'll pay it back, guys). I ended up running myself into the ground on Friday in order to finish the workout. I'm not normally a fan of doing that, but I also know that there's a mental component to my asthma - when I feel my chest tightening up, I panic and start to stiffen and think about dropping out, which just perpetuates the whole cycle and worsens the issue. For that reason, as long as I wasn't going to collapse, I needed to finish the workout, just focusing on relaxing, restoring my breathing, and continuing to run.
Which I did. With the help of friends.
Over the weekend, I changed up my allergy and asthma meds - apparently Zyrtex+Zantac, of all things, is working better for whatever is out there right now than the Allegra I usually take. And we switched my long lasting asthma inhaler to Foradil, which worked fantastically on Sunday (once I figured out how to use it - it's not a simple inhaler like the other drugs, and the instructions for taking it are a bit complicated.). It was nice to have a good run on Sunday along the towpath to finish out the week.
Dailies
Monday: Rest day. I was horribly drained from yesterday's long run, so I just focused on recovery. Just some foam rolling at night.
Tuesday: In the morning, 12 miles, including a workout of 6 hill repeats - nonstop circuit of up a hill for about 2 minutes, a 90 second easy jog, a stride, and then some more easy jogging to the bottom (whole circuit takes ~5 minutes). Followed with some injury prevention/leg strengthening work and 1000 yards easy swimming. Foam rolling at night.
Wednesday: In the morning, 6 miles very easy (8:54 pace), followed by a yoga class. Later another 5.5 miles very easy (8:32) and 1500 yards easy swimming. Foam rolling at night.
Thursday: In the morning, 6.5 miles easy (8:42), followed by yoga and then a bit of upper body and injury prevention work. Foam rolling at night.
Friday: 10 miles, including a cruise interval workout of 1600, 3200, 1600 (6:26, 12:39 (6:22/6:17), and then 6:19). Followed with injury prevention work and 1500 yards easy swimming. Foam rolling in the afternoon.
Saturday: 11 miles aerobic (8:13); later did some upper body and injury prevention work. Foam rolling in afternoon.
Sunday: 14 miles as a gentle progression from very easy to aerobic (split as 8:33 for first 3.5, next 7 at 7:59, last 3.5 at 7:24). Followed with 2000 yards swimming. Yin yoga class (just stretching) and some injury prevention work and foam rolling in the afternoon.
When you foam roll at night, do you warm up with any kind of movement first or just do it cold? I always try to get on the roller immediately after exercise because my muscles are warmed up, but that's often impossible when I run or bike in the morning or on my lunch break - I just run out of time. Also, how long do you spend on the roller?
ReplyDeleteJust do it cold. I do have several foam rollers of different firmness - I usually start with a softer and work up to a harder.
DeleteAnywhere from 5 minutes to 20+ depends on how much I think I need, and also how much time I have.
Cool, thanks! I think I have a tendency to underutilize the foam roller because I have this idea that I am "supposed" to do it right after exercise and I rarely have time.
ReplyDelete