Lung function Test , Running Races and Triathlons

last Week I finally had my annual lung Function Test, to say I was nervous about that would have been an understatement. The Day came i did the Test and I'm really happy about the results, my lung function is still on the increase, not very common for a 41 Year old Person.

So with that result I asked my Doctor , why am I slower then more or less any other person in any kind of running Race, he explained to me that if there is a medical Reason for it only a VO2 Max Test would show this , so that is one of the next steps , I'm fortunate that my Health Insurance will also finances a Test so I will book myself into this in the early Summer time.

But in general I'm really happy that my Results were so good, next stop Thyroids and  CT Scan and then the Health stuff should be sorted for a while.

More importantly  Spring is finally looming  and I have booked myself into a Sprint Triathlon in early May, which has done wonders to my Training.

 I'm nearly every morning in the pool and I have managed to do one big nice cycle Ride in and a bit of running ( including another 10k Trailrace ), not enough yet but I'm getting there.

So glad that I have my Butterflies back in my Stomach, I have Race fever. 

On one Site I'm really nervous about the Triathlon on the other site I can't wait for it.

That feeling is just great so much enjoy this feeling , it gives me the feeling to be alive. So this weekend is another short Trail Race , I'm actually considering to move from the 10km down to the 5 Km option because I want to train on Speed, rather then the Distance which I know I can do. I still have a day or two to make a final decision on it.

One last thing, I have to go for an Open Water swim, problem is that the Water here is really cold, something like 7-8 Degrees Celcius, a bit too cold for my taste but for the Triathlon in May I have to get used to the cold Water. My Triathlon club will do a open Water swim on the 1st of May but I think I need to jump into the cold a bit earlier 

and another 10k in the Bag, high time to start planning Triathlon and Co.

So today I did another 10km race, a Race which I really did not look forward too. This had several Reasons one of them was the Weather it has been now really cold windy and Wet here now for quite some time. it seems that all over Europe the Weather is playing up quite a bit and here in my Part of Ireland it is Cold and Wet. The second Reason was my experiences at last weekends 8km Trail race , to that one I was actually really looking forward,have done that one in the past and had really enjoyed it, this time I could not enjoy it because I literally was not able to breath properly.
I believe now this was caused by my Cat Hair allergy, until a couple of Days before i was together with Cats and beside getting a nasty rash on the skin it seems that it also had impacted my Airways.
I really like cats and would love to have one as a pet but guess that will not happen.
Anyway those Reasons and the also the fact that this 10k would be quite hilly was not encouraging, so rather grumpily this morning I drove to the Event and just wanted to get it done .
Here came the surprise, firstly I was glad that I was able to breath properly and secondly I realized I rather enjoyed the Race, yes it was still bitterly cold but it was not raining , so at the end i finished the 10k with my 2nd best finisher time over 10k , I'm still very slow but as said before don't really care about that.
I have in 2 weeks time my next Pulmonary Lung function Test and a month later a CT Scan to see if my Thyroids are still growing against my windpipe, I have the feeling they do, but I have to be patient now and see whats going on.
I have decided that this will not impact my Event Calendar 2013 , so now I really have to get my Triathlon Training together, not really easy in those Weather Condition's but at my first Sprint Triathlon of the Season could already be mid May and I'm seriously behind Training Schedule, nothing like a good old fright to get the Training going , works for me every time, also in the plan is a nice Adventure Race and taking part in several Cycling events.
And in August , 10th of August is the big Event , Olympic Distance Triathlon , will have to do a lot of work to do that one but the Training for that Event should help me to finally drop my Weight below 70 Kg /below 11 Stone ,I'm happy enough that i only have gained 1-2 kg over the last couple of weeks which is amazing considering that no Chocolate and no sweets are save when I'm around also I my Carb Portion of eating is far too high, I think the amount of sugary Carbs I'm eating is causing me some problems but it is really hard for me to reduce those Carbs in the current Weather, I just love far too much my Comfy food when the Wind is howling out there.
So next post will probably after my lung function test and after i have spoken again to the Alpha1 specialist, have some questions, curious about the answers ....

13miles/21k done and dusted, a race Report or .....

It's done it's dusted, I have finished a 21km/13mile Half Marathon and I got my finisher Medal to proof it.
That makes me actually really happy, my internal Couch potato was once again proven wrong, I was able to do it and I did it.
So how was it? Tough , really tough, I knew upfront that I had not trained enough and had hoped that I could hold it together at least until km 16/17 and it kind of worked out like that, at least that was my feeling. The last 4-5 km was just about getting through and that's what I did. I did fight my way to the end, I felt quite lightheaded the last couple of km's and I realized that my Body was desperately looking for food which I did not have.
So had to walk for most of the last bit's or when I tried to run it was more like a shuffling the feet along.
After I finally had passed the finish line, somebody did put a Medal around my Neck and gave me water  and a Banana , I did not need the Water but the Banana was in that moment the most important thing on this Planet ,I think I inhaled that Banana, I was ravenous.
Anyway did I mention already that I did finish last ? If not then here it is again I finished it , yes last position but I did not give up.
So today I dutifully uploaded my Tracking Data up to Endomondo and was very surprised when I saw the results, firstly I had done 2 personal Bests , one for 10km and one for 21 km , secondly I had a quick look at my heart rate Data, I know my Heart Rate is still a bit too high because of the lack of training but in general it stays stable, this Heart Rate Graph from the Race is actually amazing ,it shows a stable Heart rate until roughly 12km but then it completely is jumping up ad down, clearly a sign for me of lack of distance Training.
That explains why I felt light headed and ravenous later on.
So the last finisher is a very happy finisher right now, I finished it and I know that I need to train on distance and a bit more speed.
 I never will be speedy Gonzales, I don't even plan to be, but I hope the next Half Marathon will be a bit faster and easier.
Yep next Half is already in the planning , plus loads of other running, Triathlon and Cycling events