Week 6 The Week of the Virus

Virus: (from the Latin:virus meaning toxin or poison) is a sub-microscopic infectious agent that is unable to grow or reproduce outside a host cell. Viruses infect all cellular life. The first known virus, tobacco mosaic virus, was discovered by Martinus Beijerinck in 1899, and now more than 5,000 types of virus have been described. Most viruses which have been studied have a diameter between 10 and 300 nanometres. Now for those keeping track, there are a million nanometers in a millimeter. Can someone, for the love of God, please tell me how something so incredibly small can make me feel like total shit. Hell, I am 6 foot tall. I do not even want to do the math in order to figure out how many times bigger I am than a virus. The bottom line, one of those little SOB's completely fouled up my week. Not to mention, I would be without my bike for the weekend bea\cause of travel. Ahh what a week it was going to be.



The week started off promising, but midway through, I began to have pretty strong stomach cramps, fever and chills. Like an idiot, I went ahead and did my Wed. evening run. The run was a series of mile repeats. We went out near 6:20's and ended up doing three in a row at 6:17. For what it is worth that includes uphills and downhills. I am not sure if the workout helped me feel better at all. I do know that I have felt terrible since then. While away, a perfect Fall day enticed me into my track workout. Although still a little under the weather, I had visions of my high school days blazing around the track. If only for a few minutes, I was able to forget all about my stomach ache and just enjoy the feeling of pushing myself.



I do not know what it is about endurance athletes. Too many of us forget about things like health, sleep and food. Our soul focus becomes the workout of the day. Perhaps it is some sort of primal need to push ourselves beyond our own limits. Who knows, I just know I have it in me and could not get rid of it if I tried. Although I did not get in all my workouts this week, and I have generally felt like poop, I can still look back at the week and relish in the abilty to do the things I enjoy.

Getting healthier,

JTG

Week 5 (A runnin' fool)

Five weeks down and I am still feeling great. As far as exercise goes, the week had a couple of high points worth mentioning. Midweek, I got together with a few friends to run a 5K run test. The last 5K I ran was a huge disappointment. I went out way too fast and blew up big time. It was one of my slowest times in the recent past; 20:00. I had high hopes for the test because my running has been going pretty well. Before we could start we found out the secret service had closed the track we wanted to use because of the VP debates. We made our way to the near by park and let it rip. When the dust settled, my 5K time was 18:20; a sub six minute pace. It has been a while since I went that fast. The amazing thing is my HR average was at least 15 beats lower than the average I held during the bad 5K. I hope that means I have a little more speed in my old legs.

The other workout of note was Friday's run. It was one of those beautiful fall days. A perfect temperature, sunny skies and no wind. I just started running and did not finish until 9+ miles had passed. I kept my HR under 140 and was excited to see that my average pace was 7:43. It was the kind of day that I wish I could have every time I go out the door.

For many others in the world of triathlon, this week marks the beginning of IM week. IM Hawaii, the Ironman World Championships, happens this weekend. The picture at the top of my blog is the water near the start of the swim. It is where I hope to be one year from now. For now, I will be living vicariously through the reports of others on the big island.

Stay focused,

JTG