rough lungs; 2 miles in Satellite Beach

This 2.25 miles was super rough to do. I guess the change from cold and dry to warm and humid all at once was too much for my lungs to handle? Or maybe it is that this roughness that is in my chest, and which has been a growing thing for many weeks now, causes coughing fits to go on and on even after they aren't productive? I don't know.

I do know the first mile took 16 minutes - I probably could have done it faster had I NOT run any part of it. :( The second mile was better, about 14 minutes. Slightly less coughing, a lot less walking for sure. My last quarter mile was much closer to the pace I'd like to be at all the time, almost a ten-minute-per-mile pace.

The environment is interesting. I hope Florida gets much nicer than what I'm experiencing, because despite the mild weather, this just isn't my cup of tea. The lawns are uniformly bad, even the good ones are filled with a rough kind of grass that looks more like a home protection system than a place to play. The sidewalks are a joke, where they exist at all. (I understand this problem is endemic through most of America these days, but still.) And right now the weather is calm and humid. It'd be suffocating if it were ten degrees warmer - and it's not yet 70 degrees! I was not built for this kind of tropical "paradise", I don't think.

Still, the drivers are mostly sane, the people are friendly, and their lazy eyes aren't overly creepy. Everyone says hi and smiles at you and most of them even have most of their teeth still. I was even passed by a pretty girl on a bike with a leashed dog trotting beside her - she would not have been out of place in Prospect Park.

The roughness of my cough - the little irritation in my chest that is not phlegm, but isn't going away - is beginning to get annoying. It extends my coughing fits so much that it begins to seem it would be more productive to walk and not get my breathing to the point where I cough so much. But that would actually be counter-productive for me, wouldn't it?

I am here visiting my dad. I'd be visiting both parents, but Mom is off in St Louis doing her parenting thing, so I guess I'll have to wait for June to see her. Dad seems OK, but I am getting a lesson in the mechancis and logistics of being on oxygen. Interesting preview of my future, I'm sure. He cooked us pot roast last night and I loved it. I can't for the life of me figure out why I don't do this myself at home. I even have a crockpot!

Last thing: American Airlines, your pilots are the best, on par with United's. But if you guys think I'm paying you more money, beyond the price of my ticket, to check a bag, you're nuts. Think I can't pack clothes and medicines and therapy equipment enough for four days into one Hammacher Schlemmer hard-sided rolly carry-on? Think again, hosers!

not the best february for running

Haven't gotten too many runs in this month. I've got more gym workouts than runs, actually. Even last Thursday, I did a gym workout at Blair Academy, where I was lighting a show. They have a really nice fitness room, with good equipment. I even tried a few minutes of barefoot running while I was there. Definitely can run faster and definitely puts you up on your forefoot, but I don't think it's wise to run barefoot for very long.

Today's run was OK.



I meant to do four miles, but a loop around the cemetery is just as good, especially as it has hills. The first mile was very slow; I just wasn't feeling it. Only reason I went out was because the weather was great and I really needed some lung clearance. (Speaking of which, I kept passing other people's spit - looked like mine. They need to see a doctor!) Second mile started to get better - of course it had a long downhill and a lot of flat to it. The third mile, with a big uphill, was much slower again, but felt better. Shin splints were mild and went away for the last 3/4 mile, where my pace was the best of the whole run. Not fast, not even close to my target pace, but better than nothing. Coughed my head off pretty much the whole way, though, and not bringing up very much. I felt better after the run than before it, but still not fabulous.

Baptised new running shoes in the slush. I'd begun to wonder if part of my shin splint problem isn't that my shoes are fairly worn - after all, with such reduced running, I've been wearing the same pair for both running and walking around town. This may be a mistake. The new shoes felt softer, of course, and my footfall was different. Much nicer ride.

I passed several other runners, including one guy in a t-shirt and shorts. Nice to see. Another few degrees warmer and I can lose a layer myself and maybe go back to shorts.

Really don't have a lot to say right now. I'm pretty stressed with the renovation plans and dealing with the architect; not enough paying work; too many things people want from me that aren't bringing in money (meetings, etc.); stupid fucking tenant that I'm regretting having leased to. Winter. Just got back from New Jersey and I'm leaving again for Florida this week for a few days.

Slow evolution

I know running two miles at a time isn't making me a better runner. It's really only lung clearance. But it's also all I can manage right now. It takes all my willpower just to go out and run. I look foward to boring elliptical more; I don't know why.

So the good news is that the last run was better than Sunday's and I nearly got down to 12:00 minute miles. My resting heart rate is starting to come down, too, from the cardio of the elliptical. My lungs feel OK; neither good nor bad and I can live with that. I'm coughing up green stuff, but not a lot of it and I don't cough at night that I know of. And I'm getting stronger. I was able to up the resistance on the lat pulls from 70 to 80 last time and it didn't feel too hard. I'm starting to work with weights that move in more than one axis, so am developing all muscles around the targeted structures. (i.e. most machines are single-axis movement - no stabilizing muscles need come into play; some machines are dual axis so you have to use more muscles; and then there are free weights) I am getting stronger again and getting some muscle definition PLUS PUTTING ON WEIGHT. Not a whole lot yet, but there was a time back in October when I stepped on the scale and it read 117 lbs. Now it is consistently reading 126 or more.

I'm going out to New Jersey for a week starting Thursday. Supposed to be waist-high in snow, so running might not happen at all (running on their roads facing traffic is dicey enough without snow). But I think the school I'm designing for has a gym. If so, I intend to hit it hard while I'm there. Lots of cardio, lots of weights (at least twice), and lots of food.

Not so good, actually.

Pitiful monthly total: 19.8 miles. Even for me, that's way below normal. At a minimum, I should be doing twice that. Had I not substituted several runs w/ workouts at the gym, perhaps my mileage would have been closer to 30. But it should be there anyway, including gym workouts.

Today, the shin splints hit hard. I did a little warmup around the block, stretched well, then got going on the run. I thought it was going well until the shin splints came on. Jeesus. It hurt even to walk. It means I need more stretching, more often. This is pitiful.

I have nobody and nothing to blame but myself. I've certainly had the time this month to make a meal of it, instead of a snack, but I shy from the cold and shirk my conscience. As I search for something to pin my lack of progress on, I begin to wonder if the last round of IVs - four weeks' worth of antibiotics - haven't made my tendons rather more brittle and less stretchy. It's a known problem, after all. But then I think I'm just using that as a scapegoat - no one can sit around all of January and do nothing more than 3 miles at a time and not detrain, not get tight, not have some kind of shin splints or IT band problems.

Speaking of which, I decided to double up my nebulizer meds so I did them before I ran and am doing them again now. I just spent ten minutes stretching while doing Pulmozyme and am now doing Aztreonam while I type. And now that that's done, I'm going to hit the foam roller for a few, then probably pop out to the grocery before showering.

Hope to work out tomorrow, but it looks like I'll be rushing to finish my syllabus before teaching begins tomorrow night. Yeah, it's true - I STILL haven't solidified this semester's syllabus; mostly because it isn't just a matter of changing dates, but updating the course content to match the new software, ditch some old exercises, invent new ones, etc. Some of that I can put off for later, but some of it has to be done now so it can be in the syllabus for tomorrow.

getting BG under control

My blood glucose readings have been consistently 50 points higher than I'd like to see. For a while I suspected my meter was off - but why would it suddently stop reading correctly? Now I suspect that the Lantus I'm taking is not really getting in. I'm prescribed 3u Lantus daily. Do you know how little that is? It's like one large drop of fluid. The plunger travels very, very little to produce this. But this fluid must be forced out against the pressure around the needle - and frankly I don't think enough pressure is made inside the insulin pen to force enough lantus out into the fat. Also, I've observed that the pen will weep after an injection for some time - more Lantus comes out of the needle. So if its coming out after, then its not coming out during. I suspect that I am not, in fact, getting 3U Lantus. So this morning I'm trying 5U Lantus under the assumption that at least 2u just aren't getting in. We'll see what this does to blood sugars.

The other thing I could do, admittedly, is cut out pudding at night before bed. But I had that accounted for and under control - and now its not. I guess I'll call my nutritionist Monday or Tuesday and check in with her about this.