The Wonder Drug : Physical Activity !

I borrowed this Sentence " the Wonder Drug : Physical Activity"  from a Speech I was listening to last Week  during a Patient Conference and it made a pretty big impression on me, because I think I'm living proof that this sentence is very true.
The Conference was held for Alpha1 Patients , it is annually conference to which I try to attend every Year.
Since I'm a Alpha1 carrier and no one can tell me if I ever will run into serious Heath Problems I tend to keep an Eye on the developments in the Research of Alpha1.

It is quite interesting and disturbing at the same time , no one knows why some Alpha1 Carriers ( which i'm ) get serious Lung and liver Disease, however it seems to be a small percentage of carriers who get affected. I know that smoking active and Passive is a huge factor.

I'm not smoking and I don't allow anyone around me to smoke , however I was for easily 25 Years of my life exposed to passive Smoking and that honestly scares me quite a bit , I just hope that this will not bite me at some stage.

Anyway the patient conference was very interesting and one of the guest Speakers was a psychologist, he spoke about Stress,if you are stressed your immune System might get affected and that is something a Alpha1 Patient can't afford and probably no one can actually really afford.

I know from myself if when I'm stressed over a longer period of time, I will get a cold or bronchitis.
So not being stressed is very important to me. One relieve for stress is physical activity , which brings me nicely around to the purpose of the Block , being a Alpha1 Carrier who tries to get fit with physical Activity .
I have now 4 month and 5 Days to get ready for my Half marathon, at the moment i can maybe run 5km without getting into huge problems and I'm slow I mean really slow but I have done now some training's runs and I'm slowly getting into the habit .
 I also have on my Breakfast Table the Training's plan for the Half marathon,every morning when I have my coffee I see it and that is a good reminder that works actually better than to to hang the Plan onto the fridge or something like that.
The good thing about the half Marathon plan is I know that this is only a intermediate Goal if I manage to get this done decently then late in 2013 I will try to do a Half Ironman and even that thought is very existing and a bit scary.
 I have already realized that I miss my Triathlons and I'm currently planning my 2013 season, so looking forward to do it again.
i believe if anyone even thinks of doing a Triathlon he/She is probably already hooked

So more Swim , Bike and RUN .....

everything from 5 km to Half Marathon

This morning I had a 5 km Trail Race and I have ot say that was a though one, the Trail mostly consisted out of Bog or at least that was my impression but even though I got wet and very muddy I really enjoyed that race, I did the "short" version of the Race since I knew I wouldn't be able to do 10 km of this type of race at the moment.
I did the same Race last year and managed to do the 10 km distance , OK just about.
Anyway my running has been a concern of mine , so when last week a friend of mine told me he had signed up for a half Marathon in March, that got me thinking. I realized the only way I will get into regular running habits again is with a scare factor, so the same evening I signed up for that Race as well.
I have done one other half Marathon before so I know how long 13.1 miles / 21 km can be.
Since I have some bigger plans for later in 2013 that half Marathon will be a huge stepping stone. If I manage to pull that one of in a for me decent time then I will go ahead to do a half Ironman late in 2013.
In regards to scare Factor that Idea can't get much bigger but I know I want to do this.

Funnily enough , last Year when I did my first Sprint triathlon another Friend of mine did actually on the same Day on the other site of the World a full Ironman.
 I heard the other that She wants to do another Ironman next Year. It sounds weird but it will be  huge boost for me, that I know a Person who will train to do twice the Distance of the same type of Race.

I'm writing this on the same day when the Ironman World Championship in Kona are about to start, I an hours time. In will be glued to the live Stream to watch all these amazing Athletes.
Time to get ready to watch an amazing Race with amazing athletes ,  I believe this Year there are 5-6 People on the Start line which are over 80 Years of age, not really possible to get a better inspiration

Perfect Weather for ......

The Weather is at the moment a mix out of everything , some Days filled with Rain but mostly it is just a very nice Autumn. The Weather would be perfect for Cycling and running , Cycling no problem , I actually was out today and did roughly 30 km in the rather Hilly Surrounding of the Wicklow's .

 I really love doing this, getting out on a Saturday or Sunday and doing a reasonably long cycling ride.I also was out yesterday on a short hiking trip , I mainly was out to help out as a Marshal in a Mountain Running Race but after my Duties were finished, I continued to do a nice short Hike .

I try to Break in a pair of new Hiking boots,  I guess they will need a bit more work, since I got yesterday 1-2 small blisters , that can be normal with new Hiking Boots and I suspect that I need to get a different pair of Socks.

I'm planning to do some tougher hikes over the next couple of Weeks so would be nice to get those boots sorted before I'm stuck with Blisters somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

Running , this is and stays my weakest Link , I did last weekend a 5 mile Flat course running Race , beside finishing second last, the Race  did hurt, no real surprise since I haven't done any other running lately, not yet quite sure how to get over that laziness.

It's not purely Laziness on my Site, I know I still fight with my Winter Blues , how do I know that ? I'm still rather tired and still often rather moody , I recognize the Symptoms and I know that exercise is the best way to sort it out, but getting of the Couch can be rather hard. 

 I hope that Hiking will help me so that I get back into running, and I defiantly  have to do some serious running Training, like Speed Training , hill training etc.

My recent Weight Gain should be a additional motivation , I have gained 1-2 kg  , in my World that's usually not much ( not for somebody who lost over 30 km of weight ) but amazingly I feel it very much , I actually feel uncomfortable with this added Weight again. 

Next Weekend is a 5 km Trail run , doesn't sound much , it did last Year the 10 km Version of that Race and it was the toughest Race of the Year , so 5 km of this will be more then enough to get to my current limits.

out and about