"Being defeated is often only a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent."

AM Run - 3.75 miles - Hmmmm, breath Kat breath

AM Swim -
The plan - Get in the water. That's it, plain and simple.
6 x 500's easy -8:30-8:45s. I have way too much %^# running through my head. As always I found it therapeutic to break it down during monotonous 500 repeats.
Total yardage 3000

I strained my back during a coughing fit on Saturday. It's getting better but still annoying.

PM Spin -
The plan - 90 mins
15 min warm up
5 x 1:00 high cadence high wattage spin outs; 2:00 floats
3 x 10 min big ring intervals 55-60 rpm; 5 min floats
15 min recovery

Now for what actually happened
15 min warm up - 20-145 watts
5 x 1:00 high cadence high wattage spin outs; 2:00 floats - avg watts 230 (10-20 watts below threshold :(( power was not present)
1/2 of a 10 min big ring interval - FAILURE! At 55-60 RPMs my watts avg'd 170 - 20 below what it should be. I was suffering. Power doesn't lie BUT my power does die. My ^%#^ass power meter lost the signal to the hub again, 35 mins in - same as last trainer session. WTF? I changed the stupid batteries. Grrrrr. I've got to figure this out.

Mark and I were both having a poor spin. He was recovering from being sick and my pathetic watts showed I was still recovering/suffering as well. We called it enough with 60 mins.
Recovered with wine, good food and much needed venting and bs'ing.

"Being defeated is often only a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent." - On to train another day, say tomorrow? :D

Sweet November Rain

A picturesque autumn day

Started out by sleeping in to 7:30, this is good for me. Very good! A little sleeping mask does wonders keeping it dark when daylight rise and shines. Once my body decided it was time to get up my tummy chimed in with a great idea. Home made whole wheat/grain pumpkin pancakes. I topped them off with a pumpkin/agave spiced spread. OMG - so delish.

After a breakfast of champions I figured it was time to face the day. Off to Winco for another week's worth of grocery shopping. I kept singing Destiny's Child "I'm a Survivor" as I walked through the aisle ways. Winco is one of those less expensive bulk shopping centers. The kind of place low income families like to take their family on vacation to OR triathletes that eat a TON of food. Each aisle I hit I was mocked by holiday goodness. I had dreams of sugar plum fairies dancing with candy canes. The hot buttered rum offered to butter my rum. What? Um, yea. My food wet dreams didn't last long. I was rudely awakened by unruly, screaming, Bébé's Kids. Oh for the love of......control your children. Somehow I made it out alive, to shop another day.

Afternoon run - 2 hour LSD run on Wildwood
I started on 53rd and decided to do two 30 min out and backs. I was a little fearful starting. My lower side of my back still hurts a great deal when I cough. I was also concerned about the amount of fatigue I would have running for 2 hours. The cold or flu I had last week took a great deal out of me. I sucked up my fear and hit the trails. Oh my it was a BEAUTIFUL day for a run. The trails were uber muddy and covered in vibrant colors of red and golds splattered with green. The first hour came and went pretty quickly. I ran into my buddy Brian a mile or so before I went out to do my second hour. It was nice to have company for the second half. We rambled on which proved to be a nice distraction from lack of o2 in my lungs. Funny how I can always manage to talk through discomfort. The second half we crossed a few wooden bridges. This was comforting as I felt the presence of friend as I ran over them :) I finished feeling great. It was fun to bounce through the mud puddles. Nothing is quite like feeling like a kid again. Post run wasn't as stellar. I had another coughing attack which reaped havoc on my back :( . Lots of ice and vitamin I for me.

Mud Caked Calves

I returned home and recovered with a lush bomb bath. Pure utopia.
I then opted to dance around the kitchen as I cooked and planned out my weekly nutrition. Yes ladies and gentleman I am a dork.
To end the perfect autumn day on the right note my room mate and I got sushified. Mmmmmm, sushi.

And I leave you with this

I swear the "Snuggie" is taking over the world

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory

45 mins Pilates / foam rolling

AM Run
3.8 miles/7:30 avg

First week of 30 Days Of Running - 27 miles. Not bad considering I ran with out lungs for a good portion of it.

AM Swim - First real day back in the pool in about 2 weeks

Warm up
1 x 500

Drills
1 x 200 paddles;
1 x 200 buoy;
repeat 2 x

1 x 50 high elbow/finger drag;10
1 x 50 one arm catch up; 10
1 x 50 ten kick stroke; 10
repeat 1 x

3 x 100 - Hard. This was laughable at best. My chest is still covered in mucus and this prohibited excessive breathing. I landed on 1:40...so sad

Cool down
1 x 300

Total yardage - 2200

60 min Power KAT nap

90 min Spin
Sadly I have no wattage to report. Even if I did, I doubt it would be exciting. My goal was to stay just above my IM race wattage and work on bringing my trainer endurance back. Did this happen? Who knows. I lost my transmission signal to the HUB 45 minutes in. I'm thinking the HUB battery might need to be replaced but didn't feel like messing with it mid spin. Before the signal died my avg watts were at 152. IM was 146, so if I kept the avg up I would have been on point. Which I do believe I did.

After all is said and done I'm a bit tucked out. I feel a great deal of endurance has been lost :(

Let It Go

Why do we get sick? There's no right or wrong answer. In fact, I don't believe there is an answer. I am not one who gets sick. I was looking over my sick time with my company in the last 14 months and shit you not, not a day used. It just doesn't happen. Then one day out of the blue....BAM! It hits me. As a superstitious person I go back to blaming this on the broken mirror. If you ask any person that doesn't train as much as I do they'll naturally say I over did it. Which, let me just go off on a little tangent here....is F^&$ing annoying. I handled "said" volume for months on end, and I never got sick. Off season came and I gave myself a break. I've tapered off. I've dropped the intensity, volume and goals. BUT since I still do more than YOU, I over do it. Input from athlete's without credentials, accomplished PRs or people I don't have strong respected relationships with fall on deaf ears.
Tangent over, feel much better now :)

Speaking of feeling better. I am feeling much better. By Wednesday my flu/cold whatever the f^$@ that had violated me had started to make its stage exit. Feeling Grade A Craptastic for 5 days really took a blow to my motivation. I haven't really swam in almost 2 weeks. I think I got on Carnage once last week. The only thing I have brought myself to do is run. The only thing that will ever hold me back from running is injury *knock on wood*....come hell or high water I will run to run another day! I decided at the end of October to accept a 30 day run challenge. Run at least one mile every day for 30 days. Sounds simple enough right? One might assume but I think it's much easier said than done. You run a fine line running every day. There's a big risk of over doing it involved. I think this is just the challenge I need. For one it will be keep me motivated and provide self accomplishment over something non-competitive or serious. Two - I think it will teach me self discipline as I will have to manage my miles accordingly. I will need to still get in long weekend runs so I can accomplish the big Bday run in Dec. The weekday runs will have to be very short lived. Three - I will be forced to pick up my Pilates/Core and foam rolling as to prevent injury.

I'm excited for fun run month of Novemeber....even if it did start out a little rocky.
Sun - Nov 1st - 1.5 miles - what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. I recited this as I almost keeled over and died.
Mon - Nov 2nd - 3.1 miles - Note to selfm- Chest shalacked with Vix Vapor Rub running in 35 degree's is god-awfully painful
Tues - Nov 3rd - 3.1 miles - Mmmm, cough drops help. Oops, dropped my lung at mile 2
Wed - Nov 4th - 5.15 miles - Brrrr, cold still hurts, menthol or not. Newtons on the other hand make everything A-Ok.
Thurs - Nov 5th - 7.5 miles - 45 degrees! What a difference 10 degrees makes. Post run cough attack ONLY lasted 5 minutes, I'm getting better!

Tomorrow is will be a very loooooong day as we have our annual physical inventory. Mileage will be very limited. I also want to give my calves a little extra R & R. I think I'll do an easy 2-3 miles and call it good.

To end with something completely off topic but fun, lyrics of songs that have been stuck in my head - Enjoy!

*Ramblin' on, And now's the time, the time is now, to sing my song
*You Spin me right round baby, right round like a record baby right, round, round,round
*YEEEEEEEAAAA! OKAAAAAAY!
*It's a nice day to start again, It's a nice day for a white wedding
*Yeah, Yeah - We Be Clubbin! It's packed %^&#%^ don't know how to act!
*Kiss me through the phone
*Keep Ya Head Up - Ooooo child things are going to get easier, oooooo child things will get brighter
*Gotta Get Some Lovin, Gotta Get Some Loving - Bounce to the house all by myself
*I'm a survivor, I'm not gonna give up, I'm not gonna stop, I'm a work harder
*Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am....stuck in the middle with you
*Hello darkness, my old friend. I've come to talk with you again....
*I don't want to be the girl that laughs the loudest, or the girl who never wants to be alone
*No need to ask, he's a smooooth operator, smooth operator. Coast to coast from LA to Chicago
*She bangs, She bangs, oooo baby, When she moves, she moves, I go crazy
*She woke up and took me by the hand, she's gonna love me in my Chevy Van and that's ok with me
*Stop, drop, shut em down open up shop...Ooooo, nooo, that's how ruff riders roll
*Please allow me to introduce myself I'm a man of wealth and taste, I've been around for along, long year
*Now follow me and do exactly what you see, don't you want to grow up and be just like me?!
*I fell into a burning ring of fire, I went down, down, down and the flames went higher and it burns, burns, burns....the ring of fire

5 days and counting.......

*Why did the 30 in 30 have to start this month? Do you know how painful one mile is at this point?
*I broke a rather large mirror in half when I moved. I knew at the point of contact that I would be cursed. What I didn't know was how bad the repercussion would be.

*I have a knack for running...away from everything.

*47lb cock and a friend, what else could a girl ask for?

*Every time I run on city streets I am amazed by how many drivers don't look before taking their “free” right.

*I found out that you can indeed make food too hot. My stomach has been churning for the last day or so over my homemade Tom Yum soup. Too much chili paste and chili oil. This is good for the nose but not the tum tum.
*I am not a fan of the darkness, whether in time or the heart.

*I'm tired of being lonely. I am tired of pretty much everything.

*It's odd how something so little could make you realize that you care so much.

What to do? What to do? What to do?

One hot mess

I still feel like complete and utter s^&$. Each night I've slept somewhere between 10-12 hrs. During the day I'm up for 2-3 hours and then in for another 45-hour long nap.

A few weeks ago I decided to partake in a 30 day/run at least a mile each day of the month challenge. Little did I know that day one I would feel like I was sitting upon on death's door step with some kind of cold or flu.

1.5 mile run - looped around my house.

This had to be one of the toughest cardiovascular bouts I've had in a long time. The beginning wasn't THAT bad as I think I was still high off of NyQuil. I ran and felt dizzy but that was ok. Several minutes in and my lungs started to have what felt like a seizure. Phlegm was coming up and my nose started running like a broken faucet. I was a vial hot mess as I ran down the street shooting snot rocks and spitting my insides out.

Tearing me down

Sleep did not happen. I woke up coughing all night. Finally at 5am I got up and decided to hit the gym for a short swim and a long session in the steam room. Short was putting the swim mildly, I was only able to throw out 1k y. It was pathetic. I couldn't breath to save my life. I couldn't do more then 300 at a time. I'd stop at the wall gasping for air....this, with no effort. The steam room felt good until I was about to pass out.

I only made it an hour into work. I couldn't focus and felt like I had a boa constrictor wrapped tightly around my chest, squeezing the air out of me. I went home.

Emergen-C

Zicam

Cough drops

Ibuprofen

Netty pot

Gargle with salt water

Chicken broth with red pepper flakes

Repeat x10 - yea, that's my day

My mom hooked me up with peppered turkey soup and some bomb ass almond cookies. They had to be good considering it's the only thing I've been able to taste. Have I mentioned previously that I have one of the best mothers in the world?

I'm slowly producing a mass colony of phlegm babies. They've decided to hold my lungs hostage. I think they are in cahoots with the cold/hot sweats aka fever. I'm fearful of falling asleep as I think that may give them the opportunity to take over. After my first nap I awoke to a 101 degree temp and my chest feeling as it had been trampled by a heard of elephants. My back is uber sore and feels like some one has thrown me up against the wall - and not in the good way. My sanity comes and goes. I'm growing restless and bored. This is going to be a very long, depressing weekend. Maybe I'll go buy a fifth of Crown and waste the next two days away in my bed. Dear Fever and Phlegm Gods, I give up. You win.