Back in the hills

This was another good week, lung-wise:

Mon.: hill walk with son (~ 4 miles)
Tues.: run 4 miles in a.m.
Weds.: swim 1000m; run 3.1 miles (hill loop)
Thurs: run 4 miles (2 of which were club handicap race)
Fri.: nothing
Sat.: run 3.3 mile hill race
Sun.: nothing

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I did my first race since July on Saturday. It was short, but featured a lot of elevation, and today, Sunday, my upper legs are sore. Breathing-wise I was fine, and I felt good running running in the wind and rain. This was encouraging, and I'm hoping to increase my weekly miles now.

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Of course, most of those miles now, and for the next few months, will be run in the dark.

Back to health

It's now been five weeks since my last lung flare up.

I've had three good weeks of training, then a week backpacking in Shenandoah National Park, and then a week at a science conference (for work). During the latter, I was only able to run at the end of the week when I returned to the U.K., and then did only brief runs. However, I was on my feet all day at the conference and walked a great deal.

Now that I'm home, I'm hoping to get in a more settled schedule of running.

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The nights have drawn in dramatically. The clocks have fallen back here in the U.K., and it is dark by 5 p.m. Today, it was rainy with low cloud, and it seemed to get dark at 4. This is what I call the "dark season", and most of my runs now will be with a torch (flashlight).

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I'm just toying with the idea of a spring marathon. I like the structure it gives to the winter, and the fitness base it provides for the rest of the year. It might also be a way of building back after my various lung issues.

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Shenandoah was terrific, in a subtle way. The fall colours were great, and the skies clear and blue. One night, as we sat around a fire at an Appalachian Trail shelter, we looked up to see the Milky Way.

Opportunity is a guest who doesn't linger

My peak flow has been in the 500s all week, and thus I have been able to get back to running.

This was my week:

Mon. - run 3.25 miles
Tues. - run 4 miles with club
Weds. - run 5.6 miles (town loop)
Thurs. - swim 1100m at lunch; run 3.5 miles p.m. (2 of which were a handicap race in which I came last)
Fri. - nothing
Sat. - walk 3-4 miles (backpacking)
Sun. - walk 4-5 miles (backpacking)

Four consecutive runs might have been a bit much, but I was feeling good, and my wife was taking a few running days off, so I seized the chance to get out.

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High pressure has been sitting on the U.K. for more than a week now, and this has meant clear, sunny days and crisp nights. With a good forecast for the weekend, and no real commitments, I took the opportunity for an overnight backpacking trip in the highlands with my son. The midges (small, biting insects) were out Saturday evening, so we retreated to the tent and read until it got dark. In the morning, the bugs weren't so bad, and we had a pleasant walk in the sun.

At a nice resting spot under some Scots pines, I shed my pack and enjoyed the morning light.

Starting again, again...

This week my lungs were on the mend.

On Monday my lung peak flow, as measured by the meter I blow into, was 315. Today, Saturday, I am at 500.

I had been prescribed prednisolone (a steroid) tablets to help get my lung function up last week, and completed my course of this on Thursday.

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As my lung capacity has increased, I have started to return to activity. This was my week:

Mon. - swim 800m, coughing lots
Tues. - walk 4 miles (2 miles to train station at back)
Weds. - run 2.5 miles in morning before work
Thurs. - run 2.25 miles
Fri - walk 4 miles
Sat. - run 4 miles in a.m.
Sun. - swim 1300m

The reason for throwing in the walks was to get my legs underneath me a bit for an upcoming backpacking trip next month.

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I'm assuming it was a side effect of finishing the steroids, but I felt drained on Friday at work. I remember feeling the same way following the completion of my two previous oral steroid courses this summer.

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So now the question is whether I will crash again, lung-wise, in a few weeks. My hope is that the inhalation steroids will keep things stable
this time. But now my confidence has been shaken.

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We are losing 4 and a half minutes of light a day now, and some of the maples are starting to turn red.

A bad lung week

This was my exercise week:

Mon. - no running
Tues. - no running
Weds. - no running
Thurs. - no running
Fri. - no running
Sat. - no running
Sun. - run 2 miles. Stop to cough several times.

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I've actually felt worse. The first time my lungs crapped out this summer I suffered through some broken, breathless nights.

The second time, a few weeks later, I again had a weekend feeling breathless and shattered.

The third time I fell ill, two weeks later, the cough returned, and I was wheezy at night once again. But I had an inhaler, and hitting this in the night allowed me to sleep.

This week my peak flow dropped to 150 on Thursday. My lung capacity was 26% of normal.

I went to work this week. I even brought in my swim clothes on a few days, thinking I might be able to squeeze in a few easy lengths.

But by the afternoon I would be dragging, and any possibility of greater activity was out of the question.

At home, I'd lay on the sofa, breathing. A drowsy lethargy would take over.

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On Friday, I returned to the doctor, and was prescribed oral steroids once again.

Today, Sunday, I tried a short run outside the recreation center where my son was competing in a swim meet. Going up the slightest of inclines, I was winded. It was like running on Everest.

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On the way back from the meet, the rain lifted, and a partial rainbow came out over the recently cut hay fields.

Blowing 220

This past week started well, but I deteriorated sharply over the weekend, lung-wise.

The pattern is becoming clear. My breathing deteriorates, I take steroids, improve, start running again, finish the steroids, and start the the decline in lung function once again.

Here was my week:

Mon. - swim 1100m
Tues. - run 4 miles
Weds. - swim 1000m
Thurs. - no running (starting to feel unwell)
Fri. - run 5 miles on track
Sat. - run 4 miles on road/trails
Sun. - no running.

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My peak-flow (lung function measure) was 490 at the beginning of the week. On Sunday evening I was coughing constantly, and my peak-flow was 220. Normal peak flow for my age, gender, and height is 575.

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I'd pulled out of the Ben Nevis Race a few weeks ago, when it was clear I wouldn't be able to do the necessary training. Nonetheless, I wanted to support my friend G., who was running the race. On Saturday, I took him to Ft. William, and jogged a bit up the hill to get some photos of him as he descended. It was a perfect fall day, and there was a great view of Glen Nevis from the trail.

Starting from scratch

I was on the mend this week, following a recurrence of whatever my lung problem was.

I've been given a peak flow meter to measure my lung output. It's not complicated - you blow in a tube, and it measures your peak output in liters/minute.

Peak flow varies as a function of gender, height, and age. If you want to figure out what yours should be, there's a chart that allows you to do so.

For my age and height, the normal peak flow should be 570.

When I first tested my peak flow a week ago, it was 360.

Over the week, I have done the measurement in the morning and evening. If you have untreated asthma, these values will be considerably lower in the morning than in the evening.

It's too early to discern this pattern for me at the moment, but my values have been bouncing around in the 400s this week, despite me feeling O.K. So, I haven't fully recovered from whatever I had.

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This has been my week:

Mon: run 2 miles. A dog licked me at my turn-around point.
Tues: nothing
Weds: swim 800m at lunch, run 3 miles on track after work
Thurs: nothing
Fri: run 4 miles
Sat: nothing
Sun: run 5 miles in the hills with friends

So, I'm starting again. No races. It felt great to be on the track earlier this week, with a late-August cool breeze, and a few leaves clattering across the lanes.

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Earlier this month we were in Arches national park, and I took a photo of the petrified sand dunes. I really wanted to walk out and follow the dunes as far as they went.