This week was 41 miles of running and 12 "miles" of pool-running plus an hour of hiking.
I pulled back on the mileage a bit this week to give myself a chance both to absorb the last few weeks' training and so that I could rest some for Saturday's 5K (separate race report coming).
Easing back on the miles also gave me some "space" (so to speak) to accommodate the new training stress of doing my daily breathing exercises for inspiratory weakness - i.e., weakness of the diaphragm and intercostal muscles. The breathing exercises are 5 sets of 5 inhalations against resistance (I use the EMST-150 with an inspiratory adapter), with 10-20 seconds between breaths and 2 minutes between sets.
The exact mechanism of how inspiratory weakness can affect running is pretty interesting. It's not a direct "you don't get enough oxygen in through your lungs." Rather, it's something called "metaboloreflex" - the body prioritizes blood flow to the areas that need it the most. Breathing is a big priority, and so if weak breathing muscles are struggling, the body will prioritize blood flow there at the expense of other areas, such as the legs. Less blood to the legs means less oxygen to the legs, and reduced performance.
At first, I thought I could just add these exercises into my day with no other changes. Then I realized over the course of this week that the breathing exercises increase my training load and need to be considered when mapping out the balance of training stress and recovery.
The added stress to my training load comes from the fact that training the inspiratory muscles fatigues them, which then translates into increased need for oxygen for those muscles, which means that my other muscles get a bit less oxygen. So, in the short term it makes things a bit harder. In the long term, I'm confident it's going to pay off.
I found it interesting that, when I do the inhalation exercises, afterwords I have a bit of that familiar "lung burn" that I remember from when I used to be able to run a fast mile. I haven't felt that in a long time. My hunch is that I've gotten into a bad cycle, where every time I take a training break at the end of a cycle, my inspiratory muscles weaken from the lack of work (with Parkinsons, muscles seem to weaken frighteningly quickly if not used). Then, when I start workouts again, metaboloreflex means that my legs don't get enough blood. So I can't run fast enough to work my lungs hard enough to strengthen the inspiratory muscles, and those muscles stay weak. And I feel like I can't get back to where I was before the training break.
[This may actually be why the best masters runners seem to either a) cross train a lot with intense swimming/cycling or b) never take a break. As you get older, muscles weaken more quickly with lack of use. Intense cross-training stresses the lungs and gets them stronger, while never taking a break means that they never have a chance to weaken.]
Assuming that this is right, the solution is NOT to never take another training break, but rather to include inspiratory training when I ease back into work after a break, so I can build back my breathing and my legs.
Dailies:
Monday: 8 miles very easy (9:45) with 2 strides plus a 1.5 mile fartlek on the track testing different shoes. PT exercises in afternoon. Foam rolling in evening.
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