Well my sinuses have finally stopped torturing me (knock on wood). It's time that I think about getting myself off the couch and moving. It's gonna be pretty well starting over since it'll be a good 3.5 weeks that I've been sidelined and not feeling 100%. I did try to keep working out but that didn't work so well. I'm planning on forcing myself to take it good and slow. No rushing to get going with too much distance too soon.This time I've got my sights on a 10k in about 11 weeks. At this point not having pounded the pavement a single day yet; the goal is to run the whole thing. If I run the whole thing I should pace out to right around 75 minutes maybe a little more. Which would be awesome if I could beat my 8k time in a 10k.

I've found a plan which I'll make into a calendar in some free time, I should be able to go couch to 10k with minimal pain, and slow-ish. This will require 4 or 5 run days instead of 3 but I feel like I make runs happen better than I make cross training happen. I do need to get back to yoga to really get the flexibility and strength going again too. Not to mention I always feel so refreshed after yoga. The goal race is the Route 66 10k on June 11. I've also got a 5k with an 80's theme I might do in mid May as a pre-race Race :).We'll see how these next couple days go. Due to other commitments today and an allergy shot Thursday, Friday is the first possible option on starting to pound some pavement.

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 I went to yoga class today with a friend at the campus rec(reation) center. The style of yoga we do at the rec is a faster flowing style. It is not super intense but not one of the really slow flowing ones either(I always forget the name of the style not that I can spell it anyway). As we were warming up focusing on our breathing I really noticed how many more breaths per minute I took than my friend; yes I know yoga is supposed to be introspective. I was feeling really good today, and she is coming down with something. I have over all had a really nice green run of things as of late. I've been consistently hitting above 90%; hit a 103% first thing one morning this week. I'm blaming this spike in peak flows on getting away from the pollution back home and heading to the cleaner country air where I go to school.

Yoga really makes me realize how tight and breathless I am all the time. I'm feeling good and getting good pf's and fev1's and yet I could really feel my chest being kind of tight and weird(yes I did premedicate). Focusing on my breathing does help me with getting all the air out (yay not air trapping), and definitely does relax me (and my airways... win 111% post workout). Thus far no post workout delayed flaring even though no post medication. This conscious manipulation makes me wonder if/how much of this asthma stuff is in my head. I mean I can definitely tell you that I have more asthma attacks when I am stressed, but I highly doubt there is an asthmatic out there who breathes better when they are stressed.

The other challenging thing that comes with yoga is that since I have a quicker respitory cycle than the average person, I end up either holding my breath to keep time with the class on the first few reps of pose to keep pace with the inhale and do .... exhale and do .... or getting my breaths completely out of sync with the pattern. When I try to keep my breaths going with the rythm it is kind of challenging since then I have to keep pretty brisk pace in the poses to keep up with my breathing. Alas, unless I'm feeling strong and have been keeping up with yoga regularly I generally just let the breathing rhythm fall out of sync from my poses.