Side-lined

So I saw the nurse practitioner again today, and she told me that I actually sound worse than I did on Friday. But the good news is, it appears I don't have asthma. But the bad news: I do have some kind of bronchitis/chest infection that has lingered for so long that I now need antibiotics, steroids, and an albuterol inhaler to get rid of it.

As she's telling me about the boat-load of pills I have to take every day and the potential side-effects, I said, "Ok, but I'm training for an Ironman -- it won't interfere with my training, will it??"

She looked at me for a second and I saw her take a deep breath. Uh-oh, this can't be good. "You have an infection, your body needs rest to let the medicines do what they're supposed to do. I want you to take at least the next 48 hours completely off, then come back in and I'll listen to you before I give you the ok to start training again."

In my head I'm thinking, "How can I circumvent this?? There must be some loophole in this so that I can completely ignore everything she just said."

She's looking at me like she knows exactly what I'm thinking. "You understand what I'm saying, right? I've done some triathlons too. I know what an Ironman is. You need rest."

And my brain is saying, "Swimming....swimming won't be too strenuous, I can still do that. And biking...maybe if I just spin in an easy gear...biking should be fine. And maybe the running part...if I just go to the Common and run easy around the park. Yeah....that should be ok too. It's all good. It's fine."

She's definitely looking inside my brain, "OK, I'm going to say it like this: this is an INVESTMENT, that you are making UP FRONT so that you won't have to take EVEN MORE time off when you get EVEN SICKER for not taking the time off NOW."

OK, the fog is clearing. I need to be rational. And smart. This is probably where having a coach would be helpful. But I get it. Nothing for two days. Nothing. Two days. Really that shouldn't be a big deal at all. Provided it really is only two days. Which it has to be. Because I'm not going to be very easy to live with if it stretches on for longer than that (or I should say, I'll be LESS easy to live with). 

Two days. TWO.

Breathless

I knew Ironman training wouldn't be smooth sailing. Like the race itself, I knew there would be setbacks, times where I had doubts, injuries, sickness... or all of the above. So, 6 weeks ago I got a chest cold and like just about everyone in my neighborhood, a cough that seemed like it would never go away. I didn't miss a day of training, until a couple of weeks later when I got hit with the stomach bug that derailed me for one day. And the coughing persisted, but the training continued. At times it seemed better for a few days, but then returned as this tightness in my chest, feeling like I couldn't get a full breath. When I ran, I noticed my heart-rate was higher than usual, and I've just been so TIRED. I'd had something like this several months ago and was put on an inhaler for a few days. Yesterday, it got worse. It felt like my airway was tightening and I had to sleep with three pillows last night to get any relief. So this morning I called the doctor and after listening to me and seeing this had happened not so long ago, I was told I likely have asthma. How can I have asthma? Can I suddenly just "get" asthma?! Apparently, I can. It can be triggered by things like a virus, and sometimes once that happens, it doesn't go away. Crap. But she gave me the albuterol inhaler that I had last time and said if it doesn't work, I'm going to have to go on the real deal next week. I've already taken two hits off that thing today and it's not working. I'm feeling discouraged. I couldn't even run today because I can't take a full breath without triggering a coughing fit. I'm nine weeks into my Ironman training and I suddenly feel like I'm 80 years old gasping for breath getting up the stairs. I'm going to do my best to get through my morning run with Deanne tomorrow, and the swim that I blew off today. And Sunday is my first 3-hour bike ride. But I need to be able to breathe. Breathing is important for Ironman training.

Am I Ready??

I got this in an email this week from Lake Placid Ironman. And the answer is, "No! Not yet!". But I'm about to complete my 8th week of training, and in 2 weeks I'll shift from the Base Phase into the Build Phase, where things will really start heating up. The Base Phase starts out pretty light, and stays fully in the aerobic heart-rate zones -- no sprints, no interval training, nothing where I can't comfortably have a conversation with someone. Right now, my typical Base Phase week looks like this:

Monday: REST!
Tues: Bike 45 mins/Run 15 mins (back to back), weights
Wed: Swim 2500 yards (about a mile and a 1/2), run 1 hour
Thurs: Run 1 hr, weights
Friday: Swim 2500 yards, bike 1 hour
Saturday: Run 1hr 15 mins
Sunday: Bike 2 hrs

In the Build Phase, my weeks will start looking more like this:

Monday: REST!
Tues: Swim 3000 yards, run 1 hour
Wed: Swim 3000 yards, bike 1hr 15 mins
Thurs: Bike 45 mins, run 30 mins (back to back)
Friday: Swim 3000 yards, run 1 hour, 15 mins
Saturday: Bike 4 hours (!),  run 45 mins (back to back)
Sunday: 1 hour bike, 1 1/2 hour run

And I can't even think about the Peak Phase yet, which is the final 10 weeks where workouts will top out at 20 hours per week. That's like a part-time job!

I'm confident that all of this base training will get me to that point, but I'll be more worried about the impact on my family. So far it's been very manageable. And thank goodness my husband has been so supportive. But there will be a few weekends at the end where I will be an absentee wife/mother. I hope I can make it to the Ironman without my family disowning me!

Screaming Fast Descent!

There are three infamous hills on the Ironman Lake Placid bike course: Mama Bear, Baby Bear and Papa Bear. They are mostly notorious for the climbs. I don't care so much about climbs. I know they will be difficult, my legs will burn, there will most likely be swearing. But...what's the worst that will happen? I will run out of low gears, my pedaling will slow to a standstill, and I will tip over going about 4 mph. Not ideal, but the biggest bruise in this scenario will likely be my ego.

I knew this bike course was one of the more challenging Ironman bike courses when I signed up. I've seen it, driven on parts of it, but there is one section of that course that causes me endless anxiety: the six-mile steep descent into a town called Keene. I've been reading lots of race reports and the one phrase I keep seeing over and over is: "Screaming fast descent!" Six miles! All downhill! And steep! Some veteran racers call it fun, exhilarating, a great way to make up some speed after all of those climbs! I, however, am a wuss on the downhills. The steepest descent I've done was at the Timberman 70.3. I let myself hit 34 mph before I hit the brakes. And I can imagine the speeds on the IMLP course could potentially get much, much faster.

On my 2-hour trainer ride last weekend I put on a Tour de France documentary to get myself inspired. One of the riders interviewed talked about riding down the mountains of France at hair-raising speeds and he basically said they just can't think about it. They all know that going down those hills at such high speeds, on 2 skinny racing tires navigating hairpin turns is complete insanity: a popped tire, a slippery road, or whatever other calamity that could arise would be disastrous if not fatal. But they  don't allow themselves to think about it until it's done. Given that I'm not an elite Tour de France cyclist, I don't think that's a good solution for me.

Granted, the hills of Lake Placid don't compare to L'Alpe d'Huez, but they may as well be given my experience with these kinds of hills. So, what to do? Just like anything else: practice, practice, practice. As soon as it's outdoor riding weather again, Deanne and I will find the biggest hills we can in these parts and go up! And....DOWN. Also, we'll be making our way up to Lake Placid in the spring and I will get to actually ride...gulp...those screaming six miles into Keene.

Also we're lucky enough to have two Ironwoman friends who are Lake Placid veterans. They managed to get through the bike unscathed, and they will be the lucky recipients of tons of questions from us over the next few months, and maybe some 3am phone calls when I wake up in a cold sweat panicking (No! I won't do that to you! I promise!!).

Misery Loves Company

The last couple of weeks have been plagued with sickness -- a chest cold and a stomach bug right on top of one another. Thankfully I only missed one workout day, but I've been less than enthused about getting up and getting out there in the dark and cold. I've especially missed my workout friends. We've all been on different schedules and my runs have been lonely. This morning we finally reconnected for our 4:30am run around Marblehead Neck and it definitely made a difference being able to socialize. I used to be fine with running by myself, and once in a while I still enjoy it. I even trained for my first marathon alone. But now I prefer running with my friends, especially so I can hear my friend Cindy's stories. They're not always factually correct, but they are always entertaining.

I'm especially dreading these long trainer rides. I'll be up to 3 hours pretty soon, and the thought of being on that thing for 3 hours in my basement by myself makes my brain hurt. I can NOT read on the trainer. Last weekend, I watched an Ashton Kutcher movie for my 1:45 ride. That's pretty much the level of concentration I can maintain when I'm biking. But I guess that's going to be part of my Ironman training too -- learning to manage the monotony when I'm all alone. Although I'm sure the scenery on the bike route in Lake Placid will be much more stimulating than the view of my washer & dryer in my basement.