10 February, 2008

I have a long way to go in my training

I realise it's a long way from where I want to be, but so much closer than last April!

I keep a daily log of my fitness activities. I started recording religiously back around September. When I look at it I realise that winter has affected all of my running goals. Less than 3 weeks until the 5K and I'm not ready. My BFF on the other hand has already run the full distance at least once, probably several by now.

I've done something each day this week. It started off by missing work on Monday wheezing like mad, which is never a good thing. I never ran a fever and so I've decided that pulling those hills on Sunday caused me to breathe more deeply than I had in a long time. This deep breathing loosened up more of the tar that I've put in there over the years.

Monday, late in the afternoon before dinner, I put 30 minutes on the trainer just spinning.

Tuesday was yoga night, I love Yoga night! It loosens and warms all those areas taught with stress. And our hostess made some fantastic veggie chili. Yummy!

Wednesday I put on hour on the trainer, not a formal workout, more adhoc.

Thursday I finally made it to the LBC trainer tour. This had a nice crowd of 30+ people (I didn't count). People were very nice. There were a few ladies new like me. Everyone comes in and finds a place for bike and trainer facing the stage. There is a big screen they play a video on for the workout. This night was all big ring work, with just the rest/spin on the little ring until late in the hour. I come in and notice there's still room to the left of the room in the back so I go set up. A gentleman comes in with his bike and eyes mine. I said, "move me over and out of your way if you like. I'm new." He nudged my bike just a few inches and we introduced each other and chatted quite a bit through the evening. I found out that I was in the recumbent corner. Interesting bikes that look very comfortable if you have back pain. I wound up moving my stuff a little further and he says it's not necessary. I said that I would be huffing and puffing and didn't want to disturb anyone. He laughed at that and said we all would be by the end of the hour. He was right, most of us were. We did one leg at a time workouts. Oh man, this made my right hip joint ache by about 45 seconds in on my right leg. I can't say I maintained a 100 MPR cadence, but I tried very hard. I did ease up on the gearing a few times. I'm not sure I'm right, but I think I'd rather keep my cadence and build up my work on those more difficult gears than sacrifice my cadence. That could be the wrong way to approach it though.

Friday I put in 25 minutes towards a run/walk. Saturday I planned another afternoon of hills. It was 50 and sunny. Well I bonked. Thing about it I started out great! I decided I needed a better warm up than I'd done on Sunday. So, I was going to get 5 miles behind me of just flat road, to warm up. 2.5 miles down the road and I was loving it. My legs felt great and my cadence was above 105 the full length. Then I turn around. I hit a wall, a 20 MPH headwind that is pushing me and the harder I work at pedalling the slower I go. I make it back to the Country Panty and I am breathing so hard. I take 5 and get my composure, drink a few sips then take off. I'm heading down Dawson Hill almost to Routte Road and the headwind is now a crosswind and it's pushing me off the road. I turn around and head home. I was defeated. I hate that feeling. When I got to the house my lungs were wheezing and raspy. Gawd I hate that feeling.

Today I put an hour and a half of spin behind me. No planned or strenuous workout, think I'll save that for Tuesday night trainer tour. It feels good to look at my journal and see a full week of fitness activities, even though they were all out. Just wait. I'll get there. I will be putting more and more miles behind me soon along with more and more hills. Just hope these lungs hold up under the pressure and just keep getting more and more cleaned out.

Let's hope for another great week. Who knows, maybe we get some more hills if Mother Nature looks kindly upon us.

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