Mike's Rehab Routine, Workout #1

Walked for 35 minutes with my new heart rate monitor this afternoon.

First, can I just say how cool the heart rate monitor is? All the cardio equipment in the gym is polar ready so my heart rate was on the treadmill the whole time. Takes so little to entertain me sometimes!

I was instructed to not let my heart rate get over 95, and did really well except for 10 seconds or so when it slipped up to 98. For the most part I spent the whole 35 minutes between 90 and 95. The sweet spot seemed to be walking 3.5 mph with a 1% incline.

I'm trying to keep a positive outlook, but honestly it was depressing to not work up a sweat. I tried to make the most of it, concentrating on my form, and keeping time with my fitpod mix. But a heart rate of 95 is like doing nothing! I know, I know, it is better than doing nothing, but arggghh! I got through the 35 mins without any chest tightness, though, and that was the goal.

Mike has finally beaten into my head that if I overdo it again I'm only going to set myself back another couple of weeks, so I've GOT to take it easy. But I don't have to be happy about it damn it! I finished with some abs and my stretching routine and closed with a qi gong breathing/relaxation exercise, so it was relaxing if nothing else!

Gearing Up for a Long Haul

I just know this lung thing, whatever it is, is not going to go away anytime soon.

It's been 4 weeks, and any increased heart rate or bad air kicks it right up. The only thing that settles it down is clean air and rest. I thought it was finally getting better, been laying off the workouts, staying inside with my air cleaner, and was feeling better. But we went out for a couple of beers with my son on Thursday and between the two beers, the bad air quality outside, and the 2nd hand smoke inside, my lungs were objecting...strongly. The cough and the chest tightness came RIGHT back like it was never gone. FUCK!

The last couple of days I've been taking it easy, not working out at all while my son's here, and it's better again, but I can't live my life this way. We went to the movies this afternoon and just walking through the 2nd hand smoke of the casino to get to the theatre I felt it kick right up again (yes, in Vegas lots of the theatres are inside casinos!). My gut is telling me it's a *condition*, not a virus that's causing this. No runny nose, no post nasal drip, no headaches, no body aches, no fever, no feeling of being run down. My lungs just seize up when challenged.

Finally going to the doctor on Wednesday, I can't take not KNOWING what this is. Whatever's causing it, my workouts are going to be taken down huge notches for at least a month and that's got me a little worried. My workouts let me eat whatever I want! My diet's good, full of healthy, unprocessed foods, so I only gain weight when my regular workouts get compromised for one reason or another (earlier this year it was back and ankle tattoos and minor surgery).

Every time I've tried to limit my eating all I do is think about what I can't eat and then all I want to do is eat! I'm going to really, really try to think of it as giving my body only good, healthy things to help it heal. Focus on the good stuff there's no room for bad stuff...right?

My New Personal Trainer

So Monday's workout was ok. Warmed up SLOWLY for about 15 minutes and could feel my chest tighten up, so instead of doing a full cardio workout like I'd planned I did some leg machines for about 45 mins. I usually do free weight stuff for legs, squats, lunges, deadlifts, so it was good for me to do some isolation work for a change. Tried not to overdo it. And Pilates yesterday was a little less strenuous than usual since my regular teacher wasn't there and her replacement wasn't as strength training focused, so we did more stretching work, which was good for me.

But the chest tightness continues, although it IS getting better. So my honey Mike has announced he's taking over my fitness regimen! Since I'm prone to pushing it even when I'm trying to take it easy he's going to make me stick to a low level routine for at least a couple of weeks. At Michael's insistence I walked today for only 30 mins and kept my heart rate under 90. Just when I thought, hey, I feel really good, and I bumped up my time to 60 minutes he came walking over and announced "ok, babe, that's it for you". But! But! I feel great and just upped it to 60! Couldn't argue with him, I knew he was right. Did spend a good 20 minutes stretching afterwards, and finished with a qi gong relaxation/deep breathing routine which felt great. Told Mike the qi gong has to be part of my rehab routine!

He ordered me a heart rate monitor as soon as we got back from the gym. It saves your workout and how much time you spent in your target zone, so there won't be any cheating (darn it!). Seriously, I know it will be good for me to be forced to slow down. My son arrives tomorrow morning for a 4 day visit so it'll be a good excuse to take 4 days off.

I'm listening! I swear!

Yesterday's workout was LOW level cardio, and I felt fine throughout, but afterwards the chest thing kicked up a little.

Did some more online research and think I may be the victim of overtraining. Occurred to me that not only have I kicked the intensity WAY up in the last 4 months but we also changed our workout schedule from taking Wednesdays and Sundays off to going 5 days in a row and taking the weekends off.

So...until this whole thing resolves itself, I'm going back to taking a day off in the middle of the week. And that day is today!

Hey! This RESTING thing works!

An extra day of rest did me a world of good.

Sat on my butt all day Monday. Sadly work got in the way and I didn't get to laze away the day killing aliens, I had to deal with the phone service being out at all four of our stores instead, but I did spend all day on the couch.

Had my Pilates lesson yesterday but didn't do any cardio prior. My Pilates teacher is incredibly knowledgeable and we did lots of chest/lung expanding work. She took it a bit easy on me, but I still got a decent workout and worked up a nice little sweat. Felt great afterwards. This morning will be the test. Going to try to do some LOW level cardio.

Still bugs me that I don't know exactly what happened. What makes it feel like you have someone sitting on your chest? I haven't been able to find any information online to help answer that question. I do think my hubby's right (yet again), I think I just overdid it. I'd been steadily upping the length and intensity of my cardio, and I just reached my limit. Throw in some bad air quality from the area forest fires, some decreased resistance from 5 days of vacation (too much alcohol, rich food, lack of sleep, second hand smoke) and whammo! So, I'm not invincible after all!

[addendum]Made it through my low level workout just fine. Warmed up nice and slow for 10 minutes, then gradually got my heart rate up to 105-110 for 35 mins, followed by a 5 min cool down (didn't feel like I needed a cool down from a 105 bpm, but it's part of the ritual!). Turns out 105-110 is enough to get a nice little sweat going. Stretching afterwards felt great. Respected my limitations. Very humbling!

Sick Day!

Calling in a sick day today.

After being out late Saturday night, drinking too much, sucking in too much second hand smoke and only getting 4 hours of sleep, woke up yesterday feeling like CRAP, like a wet washcloth had been stuffed down into my lungs. This lung situation is starting to get seriously annoying. I even considered - gasp! - going to the doctor to see exactly what the hell this is. A good night's sleep last night did wonders, I feel much, MUCH better this morning. But the slightest exertion is bringing on the cough. At least the cough has gone from dry to wet, so I feel at least like some sort of progress is being made. If I'm coughing it up it's not stuck in my lungs anymore, right?

Still no fever, no aches, no "sick" feeling, just a tight chest, like someone's sitting on me, and an occasional deep cough. Very weird. Yesterday I thought no way, no how was I working out today. Period. Mike wanted me to try to do low level cardio just to get the blood pumping. I felt so good when I woke up this a.m. that I was going to take his advice. But after being up and around, even he said "honey, I think you better just take it easy today". So it's a day on the couch for me! Video games. Hot tea. Some yogic breathing my Pilates teacher taught me. More video games. We'll see what a day of resting brings.

Gotta Listen to Your Body

Well, my body is telling me to lay off. Big Time.

Ever since coming back from vacation last week I've been suffering bouts of exercise induced asthma (or something!), when doing cardio. The first time it didn't kick in until about half an hour in, but ever since then it's a struggle to keep it under control from the minute my heart rate gets at all elevated. Basically I feel like I can't get a full breath, and that tight chest feeling doesn't go away after I'm done working out, it's staying with me thoughout the day. I don't have any symptoms of being sick, though. No fever, lots of energy, no headache. So I don't think it's viral.

The onset of symptoms after vacation is suspicious to me, however. strange germs? 2nd hand smoke exposure? maybe it's the area forest fires that have put a haze over the valley in the last week or so? Whatever the trigger, it's been pulled. Took Saturday and Sunday off. Saturday that tight chest feeling hung around all day, but felt better on Sunday. Decided to play it safe this morning, even though I felt just fine, and kept the exertion level down. Didn't do the trick. Oh, I got through my workout, keeping my heart rate under 120 so my lungs could keep going, but now, 12 hours later, I'm fighting my cough reflex and the chest tightness is the worse it's been. CLEARLY I've overdone it.

I've been pushing my cardio sessions harder and harder recently. Going longer. Going harder. Doing 4 cardio workouts a week. 4 months ago I was taking two 90-min walks per week and only have one other cardio workout. Even when I was training with my personal trainer I never did more than 3 cardios a week, and they weren't as intense or as long as my recent workouts have been. Since March, I'm doing 3 dedicated hour long cardio's a week, plus doing my upper body workout as circuit training with 2 mins of intense cardio bursts. My hubby says I've just been overdoing it. period. And my body is letting me know it's not happy about it.

The beginning

Had an episode of exercise induced asthma both yesterday and the day before. Both times about 20 minutes in. Haven't had that happen to be since, wow, it's been a LONG time...and I was *really* pushin' it when it happened before.

This time I was just goin' along doin' my regular thang when wham, chest and throat tightened up, tried pushing through it, breathing deeper and it just got worse. Had to really slow it down to recover. I can still feel that my chest is tight this morning, so today it's going to be a longer much lower level cardio workout. And then I've got the next two days off. My pilates teacher thinks it's all the smoke in the air - area forest fires have left the valley really hazy the last week or so.