Week 8: And then, fatigue set in…………………
Not bad fatigue, just the sort that tells you that you’re pushing the boundaries. Took 2 days to fully recover from Big Wednesday (long run on hot day, swim squad, stretch and core class), legs felt trashed on Thursday’s ride and I felt lightheaded doing 200’s at squad Thursday night. A quiet Friday and back on track for the weekend with some great training Saturday and Sunday. I really know I’m a few months out from Ironman now, getting a little leaner, can’t stop eating and drinking.
So, let’s look at this weeks numbers:
Swim: 4 swims, 2 squad sessions, 2x 1 hour swims alone,
13.6km 4 hrs 22, 34,060 beats
Ride: 4 rides this week, an extra 90 minute easy paced ride thrown in on Monday. Usual interval ride Tuesday, easy 2 hrs Thursday and then 160km in rain, wind then pea-soup fog early Sunday morning. Bike position feels really comfortable, nailed my eating and drinking plan on the bike and felt great the whole way.
283km, 10hrs 53, 71,830 beats
Run: 4 runs this week as well, a 20 minute run off the bike, long run Wednesday, did Sutherland Half Marathon course on Lady Carrington drive plus part of the way up to Garie on the road, 23.4km, comfortably negatively split the run, happy with pace and it was pretty hot as well. Great session. Sandhills Friday then interval run Saturday and the runnin’s done!
40.57km, 4hrs even, 32,640 beats
Total: 19hrs 16mins, 138,530 beats.
Cumulative total Weeks 1-8: 676,991 heartbeats
Heart Facts for the week: I thought I’d spend the last few months highlighting one risk factor a week for heart disease. This week: SMOKING! Info taken from quitnow.info.au, specifically the smoking fact sheet http://bit.ly/7umJVM PLEASE, quit smoking if you are a smoker, or pass on this fact sheet and ask a smoking relative or friend how you can help them quit smoking, whether it’s a regular exercise session together, being there on the phone for moral support, whatever it takes. I wish I had persevered with my sister Jodi, in the end I gave up as we would argue over her smoking and I know she was trying, when she died there was a box of nicotine patches in her kitchen. It was just 17 years of smoking too late.
Smokers have more heart attacks, repeat heart attacks and angina (over 20 times more angina) than do non-smokers. Smokers also have heart attacks at a much younger age than non-smokers.
People who smoke are up to four times more likely to die from coronary heart disease than non-smokers. The number of years you smoke and the number of cigarettes smoked increases this risk.
In addition to the effects smoking has on atherosclerosis, each time you smoke (even just one cigarette) you make your heart work harder by:
• Increasing your heart rate
• Decreasing the oxygen carried in your blood – with each inhalation of cigarette smoke, oxygen is replaced by carbon monoxide and other gases
• Short-term increase in blood pressure
Quitting smoking will reduce your chance of developing heart disease. After one year of not smoking your risk of heart disease is halved. Fifteen years after stopping smoking your risk of heart disease is the same as a non-smoker.
Even if you already have heart disease, stopping smoking is the single most important thing you can do to reduce your risk of further coronary heart disease.
The risk of coronary heart disease is not reduced by smoking low-tar or low-nicotine cigarettes rather than regular cigarettes.
Smoking around your family can also affect their health. Non-smokers living with smokers have about a 25% to 30% increase in both the risk of coronary heart disease and death from heart attack.
Decided to quit? For help, talk to your doctor or pharmacist, call the Quitline on 131 848 or visit the Quitline web site at www.quitnow.info.au.
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