Training log - Week ending 7/3/16

This week was 51 miles of running, 7 "miles" of pool-running and 1000 yards of swimming -- training log is here.

This was my second week post-Grandmas - by the end of the week, both my legs and mind were ready to go, so I showed up for my team's hill workout on Friday.

I love these workouts - since they're off of the track, we get to run them by feel, which is my preferred way to train. Additionally, since the focus here is on biomechanics and strength (you do build fitness, but that's a secondary goal), they're a great way to reintroduce hard efforts. Plus they're bizarrely fun - we run up a hill for about 2 minutes, take a jog break and chat, run fast down the hill for about 30 seconds, and then more chatting.

They really are my favorite workouts each year. Besides the marathon pace work.

This week was also my designated "focus on allergy/asthma issues and try to get stuff straightened out before my fall racing" time. So I got tested for both allergies and asthma again. I'll do a detailed write-up in a separate post later this week, including how the tests were conducted. But the very short version is:

a) I reacted to nearly everything I was tested for at the allergist, and I'm starting allergy shots in a few weeks,

b) my asthma is only partially controlled by my current regime, so I'm switching to Advair, Singulair, and a nasal spray, and

c) in addition to the asthma, I have vocal cord dysfunction, which means that my vocal cords block my air flow sometimes, especially if I try to breathe too quickly. [Asthma is an issue with exhaling due to issues deep in the lungs, VCD is an issue with inhaling due to issues in your throat.].

There is no medication directly treating VCD, though treating the asthma and allergies should indirectly help, since each can trigger VCD.  The main treatment for VCD is slowing down your breathing, opening up your shoulders, and pursing your lips.  I do all of those anyway - I figured that one out on my own a few years ago.

I swapped to the Advair starting Friday night.  I had a pretty rough "test run" on Saturday morning - while I felt fine for most of the run, I felt lousy the last few miles, and a check of my heart rate monitor indicated that my heart rate was bouncing all over the place.  My throat also felt really tight and dry.  This combination of stuff worried me, since one of the side effects of Advair can be heart palpitations, arrhythmia, and the like.

However, I went for another test jog this morning, and when my Garmin started spitting out high HR numbers again, I stopped and took my pulse.   My pulse was fine - apparently the heart rate monitor's just being quirky.   I think Saturday's issues were actually several unrelated things that happened to coincide - I felt lousy at the end of the run because I was overheated and a bit dehydrated; the heart rate issue was unrelated - technology, not physiology.  As for the dry throat?  That can happen with Advair - I just need to drink more water.   A swig of Pepto glazed my throat nicely and seemed to help as well.


Dailies 

Monday: 5.5 easy (8:49) to yoga, yoga and then 3.5 miles easy (8:46). Foam rolling in the evening. 

Tuesday: 10 miles very easy (10:08), followed by drills and two hill sprints, and core work. Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 5 miles very easy to yoga (8:50), yoga, and then 4 miles very easy home (8:32) plus drills and two strides. Foam rolling at night.

Thursday: 7 "miles" pool-running plus upper body weights and core. Foam rolling at night

Friday: 8 miles, including 6 hill repeats (~500m up, then 200m jog, 100m stride, and 100m jog down to base of hill). Followed with 1000 yards easy swimming. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 10 miles aerobic (8:34) (meant to be easy, but struggled a bit), plus upper body weights and core. Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 4.5 miles very easy (8:53) plus drills. Foam rolling in afternoon.