SWIM/RUN

Had a "two-a-day" yesterday - swim in the morning and run in the evening.

I got up early and headed to the Y to do a little swimming.  My plan was to do two 4x100's with each 100 separated by 30 seconds and a two minutes between the sets.  The Y was pretty packed.  I can tell it is getting closer to the meat of the triathlon season.  This Y has 5 lanes and they were already occupied when I got there.  Four of the lanes were already doubled up, but one lane only had one guy in it.  So I quickly jump in before anyone else showed up (which they did).

So I started my from 4x100.  Only two laps per 100, so the first couple 100's went pretty good.  I am applying similar logic to the interval approach to training for a 5K.  I was a little winded after they first 4x100 but not too bad, and my arms/legs felt good.

The second 4x100 was a little tougher.  Just after I started, I noticed that I was getting a little congested and it was hard to breath correctly.  I wasn't having difficult breathing, it was just hard to get the timing down.  I sucked in some water a couple times and came up coughing which got me a concerned look from the life guard.  I gave her a thumbs up, and went about my business.  (More on the congestion later)

Well, I only finished two of the four 100's.  My muscles were starting to fatigue a little and I was getting tired of inhaling water.  So I packed it up and headed to work.

I passed on the lunch bike ride since I knew I was running that afternoon.  I got some ribbing from the guys I ride with, but I didn't think I could do all three in one day...yet!  And since we were doing the 20-minute run evaluation that night, I didn't want to be to worn out.

The topic at the training session was bike fit.  Not much new information, except maybe a little about forward/aft seat positioning.  It did start me thinking, however, about how hard it would be to convert my road bike to more of a triathlon setup.  May be a good project for this winter.

We finished up the discussion and did our 20-minute run.  I pretty much stayed with the 5:30 run/1:30 walk group this time.  I still can't do much more than 1 1/2 miles running continuously...yet!  We finished the 20 minutes and I had gone about 1.73 miles or so which is about 11:34.  About the same as last time.  When I was done, I noticed that I was getting congested again and my voice sounded funny, like I was horse.  I asked one of the trainers about it and he said I might have "exercise induced asthma".  He said he used to get it, but doesn't anymore.

I wasn't completely satisfied with the answer, so I looked it up when I got home.  Well, there actually is such a thing as "exercise induced asthma".  I am not sure I have asthma though.  I think the difficultly breathing was being out of shape and still 50 pounds over weight.  When you have asthma, you have difficultly mainly exhaling, and that was not what was going on.  What I did find out was very interesting.

There are several exercise induced conditions that center around histamine production.  Apparently, some people start producing more histamines when they exercise.  "See, I told you I was allergic to exercise!".  Some people get rashes and some (although rare) even go into anaphylaxis.  This also may be a cause for people feeling dizzy right after the stop exercising.  Who Knew!  Anyway, the article I was reading suggested trying a non-drowsy antihistamine a couple hours before exercise and see if that helps.  So I guess I will try that next time.

Next Session: BIKING!!! (finally, something I can do)