Monday, June 6, 2011

Monday moaning!

Very glum this morning; chafing is much better (right leg still sore, but left leg pretty much recovered), but I am coming down with another lung ailment!

I wasn't feeling well in the late afternoon yesterday, but I put it down to not having eaten enough earlier and the fact that I was having an extremely long wait (like, almost an hour!) for a city bus to get me across town to the subway on the way home from visiting out-of-town friends with new baby in tow on the dreaded and inconvenient-to-reach-from-me Upper East Side.

As the evening progressed, though, I realized that I'd been quite wheezy all day, and that my lungs were clamping down...

I think I am not as sick as last time (this is what I always think when I am just getting sick, but in this case it has a fair chance at being right!). The plain and obvious truth: I got sick at pretty much exactly this interval after my other 100-mile ride too; clearly it just puts an extended strain on the huffing-and-puffing system that doesn't necessarily create problems during the ride itself (I use my albuterol inhaler before I start, keep an eye on the clock and make sure to use it again roughly every 1.5 hours, a little before it actually wears off) but that leaves me wheezy afterwards and very vulnerable to any minor respiratory infection.

The fact that I never get enough or good enough sleep is the clincher; that's what makes all the difference in whether or not you can fend off a minor viral infection, and really I am always very vulnerable, the number of times I get a restful night's sleep in a month is pretty much none!

I only had this asthma diagnosed a year and a half ago, but in fact it has caused me significant problems for much longer than that, in all three marathons I've done and in a number of other endurance sport situations as well: the precipitating factor for getting terrible month-long bronchitis last fall was doing the short 'social triathlon' in Cayman and wheezing a lot on the run. I need to get a better handle on this and how to circumvent it.

There is nothing I can do but take it very easy for the next couple days and hope to get better more quickly than I did when I was sick four weeks ago. As I said before, I have this doctor's appointment later today anyway (original goal was just follow-up on insomnia and asthma from winter physical); I will see if there's anything she can give me, but am not especially optimistic.

What I really will need to do is see the asthma specialist again when I get back to New York properly in September and take a deeper look at what can be done to improve this, and also to see what can be done about the insomnia; I have an appointment with a sleep specialist tomorrow, though I've seen a few other folks like this before and do not imagine miraculous change is in order. Really I need a new regimen where I do a lot less in general, take things easier, never work in the evenings, etc. and tackle the sleep thing in the most ambitious possible way...

I am certainly feeling a bit glum, in short, but there is truly nothing to be done now but wait to get better. I missed the last big training week's long swim and long run, but I did hit the all-important long bike ride, and I won't sweat it about losing these days of workouts. I believe I have trained enough to have the base to finish, and that what I do or don't do this week won't materially affect that. I'm away at a wedding Thursday to Sunday and wasn't planning on exercising much then anyway - I'll just have to wait and see how it goes. If I feel good early next week, I'll have a long-day workout like the one I imagined, probably on Tuesday or Wednesday once I've had a chance to 'test' whether lungs really are better.

(It's possible that this really just is a slight thing and I'll feel better enough on Wednesday to do some kind of workout - we can only hope.)

I got the IMCDA athlete's guide on Friday, and I spent a good bit of time Saturday poring over it and running the numbers on course cutoffs. In fact, though people complain about them, the cutoffs are very generously designated; their rationale is that if you're still at that point it is in their experience pretty much impossible that you would finish, and I will take that consequence if it comes. But I still believe that if I have a reasonable day out there, I can beat the cutoffs and get an official finish in the 16-16:30 range - and that is what I am going to try my damnedest to do!

5 comments:

Ironmom (Julie) said...

Feel better soon! Did you get an athlete's guide in the mail? Wonder where mine is?

Jenny Davidson said...

Athlete's guide is up at the website as PDF, I got an email with the link. You should be able to get it here:

http://ironmancda.com/athletes/athlete-guide/

Danielle in Iowa in Ireland said...

What is the bike cutoff?

Anonymous said...

5:30 pm is the final bike cutoff but there are to mid-point cutoffs along the way. The first loop has to be completed by 1:30 pm and you have to pass the turnaround at the far end of the course on Ohio Match Rd by 4:00 pm. You can do it! One of my race day goals is to finish in good enough condition to come watch you and some of the other racers I know finish! Last year, I spent way too much time in the medical tent to make that happen, but I'm very motivated to get back out there and cheer! 19 days!

Jenny Davidson said...

Carls - yes, those were the cutoffs I was pondering - I do think I can make it!

Here's to no need for medical tents for any of us racing!...