So today I went for a run(ish), where I encountered questionably slick patches/uncleared walks/shoulders I did some powerwalking cause falling on my buns while running down the main drag in town sounded like a bad idea. It was a nice 37F/3C outside, with not too much wind. Enough to keep me cool but not so much that I was under dressed in a long sleeve technical tee with a longsleeve 'cold morning' running top over and gym shorts. Yes, I wore shorts outside today.

Overall the run went decent, I felt rather slow I came in at right around 57 minutes which isn't bad but definitely needs to be improved since I'm hoping to do somewhere around 1:15-1:20 for the 8k I have coming up. My legs didn't really complain, got a little tight here or there but loosened right back out with a quick stretch. The lungs where kind of SOB quite a bit but not really tight or cough-y. I lost count of how many puff's of ventolin have been into me today. I kind of crashed after the run. Probably not the smartest idea to run in the midst of my period. However, I did it already. I just went out there to run, no real planned route, just me my iPod, my phone, keys, inhaler, driver's license and camelbak. The camelbak is a blessing and a curse on the one hand I stay very well hydrated. However, consuming 1.5 liters of water in under an hour with no easy restroom access in cooler temperatures does present a slight problem.

My nike plus is acting up the sensor is being dumb. So I either need to beat it into submission(cause all electronics work better after a few love taps) or get a new one. Which is how I ended up going the extra 200 meters not that 5.2k is is a bad distance. Although had I not ended my jog at the far-away parking lot of school(to pick up my car) I would've gone closer to 6km. I'm definitely feeling like I can get there for the 8k. Whether I'll be walking or jogging has yet to be seen. If I could do a like Run 8 minutes Walk 2 minutes or something that would be a happy point. However, a lot depends on what the weather looks like come that part of March, not only temperatures for the asthma, pollen counts/how well allergy shots are working for the congestion factor.

So as I mentioned earlier this week I seriously need to get out there and get my buns going forward at an intermittently quick pace. I have 6 weeks to get out there and go for it. I need to get serious. Yes, it can be down right bitter out there here in the Missouri Winter. However, unless there is a frostbite warning or dangerously icy I  am here and now committing infront of the whole blog-o-sphere to get my buns out of the warm and start jog/run/walking.


The plan is:
Monday/Wednesday: Short runs (Taper up from 2miles to 3mi/5k)
Tuesday/Friday: Aerobic Crosstrain (Taper up from 30 minutes to 60 minutes) possibly some Yoga
Thursday: Rest, Possibly Some Yoga on weeks I don't have allergy shots.
Saturday: Long Run (Taper from 2ish Miles to 5ish miles)
Sunday: Yoga and/or Strength and flexibility
If you want to see my exact training calendar let me know and I'll give you access to my google training calendar. Edit: See Training Calendar above/to right.

Keeping my fingers crossed that the lungs will behave better for me this winter. It's probably rather silly to schedule a race for March 12 when that is normally my worst season. However, I'm hopeful that the allergy shots are working and I'll be free breathing for the race. Since that time last year I was enjoying a fun course of Medrol (predisone's equally evil cousin).

So the winter months bring me indoors towards the gym. Cause I don't know about you but I'm not very skilled at fitness walking/jogging when there is 3-6+ inches of snow on the ground. I tend to try to avoid trudging out in it in this kind of weather. My usual thing to do at the gym is hit up the indoor rower [aka erg(ometer)]. I'm slowly but surely rowing my way to a million meters. Yesterday was my first 5k in 2011 I rowed a 35:47 which is kinda slow for me, but baby steps.

Water break during my rowing last night

The lungs have been rocking it out. I like that part of winter. They will let me sleep through a Symbicort dose :). Ventolin has only really been happening when I work out which is pretty epic. 2-3 rescue uses in as many months... I could really get used to this :). Maybe I will escape to Inhaled Steroid only someday. I'm not holding out too hard but hope does spring eternal.

The semester is off to a decent start I'm only in 4 classes one of which is online [medical terminology... interesting class]. It has been keeping me mighty busy. However, hopefully I'll get into the rythym of class and get back into better blogging habits.

Spring will bring with it a fun break during which I get to see Dr. Z for a what the crap is up with my hormones appointment, and Dr. B for a check up in the peak of spring allergy season. I know you are jealous of my spring break plans don't lie! Also during the second weekend of break I'm registered for a 5 mile/8k run. It's a St. Patrick's Day run with beers at the finish line so I'm not sure how seriously people will be taking it. I'm excited for it though[not for the beer, just vigorously went 5 miles a brewski isn't on the top of list of stuff to ingest] cause it's chip timed. Should be interesting since I'm looking at my calendar it's 47 days away! Somebody better get on her training. I'm in decent cardio shape since I've been rowing and such but I need to get my buns back out on the track/treadmill/road. Should be interesting to try out cold weather training. It will be a necessary evil since if I can run/rapidly walk 5 miles in Northern Missouri Winter it should be easier to do in Central Missouri early spring. The average for early March in St. Louis is in the 40's (F) which isn't too bad.

Dust Mite, Wikimedia Commons

I happened upon this BBC article out on the internet about how untidy beds are less hospitable for dust mites. Guess who just got an excuse to not make the bed, which I don't do much of the time anyway. This is an interesting tid bit, I'd like to do some further research and see if it's a widely researched area. However, the initial googling all seems to lead back to this as the only reliable source. When I find some more research energy I'll take a deeper look into some journals or something.

My lungs we're freaking rocking New Years Eve! They were real troopers, I got a little SOB powerwalking in the cold with my friend Todd w/o premedicating but it was mostly out of shape SOB and I was fine once we stopped indoors at the first desitnation of the night. They we're totally chill with the smokey bars, and casino we went to. It was pretty amazing, I was planning on having a little bathroom ventolin break but never needed one. Then to ring in the new year I slept through the first 2 doses of symbicort for 2011 (oops). However, no lung crashes here, we are just now getting a little tight which considering I went 36 hours between symbicort doses is pretty epic. I had an awesome time with my friends. They got kinda drunk but I was driving so I had a lot of roy rodgers cocktails and pepsi's which was fine by me since I was drinking free :). It was pretty epic fun night bar hopping and figuring out how the heck a casino worked with 2 of my friends who had never been to one before. Especially since we started at this sushi place where I had super yummy strawberry cheesecake sushi style rolls!  This year will hopefully bring a drop in bmi for me by about 6-9 points. Oh and getting myself in shape and staying that way. Who knows maybe I'll even kick my soda-pop habit(not holding my breath there, I can try though).

So I've had my quarterly visit with the favorite allergist, rather uneventful at least that one was over. I decided that I should probably stop ignoring my super irregular periods and have a fun chat with Dr. Z about those. Well Dr. Z is apparently incredibly hard to get an appointment with in under a month's notice.  This landed me with her associate Dr. S. He was nice but nothing like talking about your periods with a doctor you've never met AWKWARD. Oh well, his two cents was that my periods are kind of disconcerting and that PCOS has a high probability of being the issue. The only thing more disconcerting to him than the frequency of them was the asthma connection. Long story, short: woo adding ortho novum 7/7/7 in hopes of getting my hormones back on board with the correct pace and a happy fun appointment with Dr. Z over spring break(try to contain your jealousy).

I'm also restarting P365 with the lovely Ms. Kerri. So as of 1/1/11 I've got a new Project 365 going. Come see what a year in my life looks like!