Encouraged and Discouraged!

I wish I was a note taker. I always have so much to share, then I sit in front of this computer and ... nothing. Or at least nothing interesting.

I've been thinking lately (a dangerous past time in my case). Why is it that endurance athletes are more susceptible to getting sick? Of course one of the reasons is not enough protein! Carbs are very important but not at the expense of protein. Protein can be converted but it cannot be converted to! What I am saying is that you have to eat protein to get protein unlike carbs which can be converted from protein and fat (or at least used as fuel), nothing can convert to protein. Take your weight and times it by .6 to equal the grams of protein that you should be eating if your active (herbivores included)! 

But that can't be the only reason. Many athletes seem to get sick and I really got sick about a month ago and I know I'm eating plenty of protein.

So, let's go back to the question! Even if you have a hard workout that depresses your immune function for a day, why wouldn't their be enough immune function to handle it? Where would the cold or flu or whatever come from? A possible answer came to me at work! As I have mentioned before I work on an ICU, thus we have many patients that are intubated. One thing required every 4 hours is mouth care. The reason is mouth care prevents pneumonia (or more pneumonia if they already had it). These patients are more prone to pneumonia because of the direct access the mouth organisms have to the lungs via the intubation tube.

When we run, are we breathing through our nose, using the defenses of hair and mucous membranes to protect our lungs? Is it possible that we have bacteria in our mouth that we are breathing deeply into our lungs?

So my pre-workout routine now involves flossing, brushing and listerine. I can't prove that it's helpful but it seems like common sense to me.


Discouraged by Swimming!

Went to the open water swim brought to us Twin Citians by this wonderful couple in Chanhassan. Despite my improvement in the pool I am close to no better in the lake. I just get short of breath so easily and then I can't swim. I am not tired after swimming, just unable to freestyle. Fortunately I have at least 4 more opportunities for open water swims before my first triathlon. The first thing I need to pay attention to is just to swim slowly. I think I try to move to quickly when I don't have the orientation of the bottom of the pool.

But when it comes down to it, if I can't swim, there is no way I can do the 1/2 ironmans that I have planned this summer.

As discouraged as I am about swimming, I am equally encouraged by my bike and run. I will talk more about that later but I am up to 60 miles and I trimmed 10 minutes off my 14 mile lsd run with only a 2 avg. heart beat per minute difference.

How fast can I run 13.1 in a race now? I don't know, but I no longer fear the distance.