6 Degrees of Separation

Today Total: 8kms
Week Total: 8kms
Month Total: 65kms
Year Total: 65kms edited to correct total

Well at 36 degrees C when I started out I reckon there was about 6 degrees of separation from what would make a reasonable running temperature :)

Actually I love training in the heat - as fat and unfit as I am, heat just never seems to be a factor for me. Dunno whether that is a physiological thing or a psychological thing - guess I don't really care as long as I'm not whinging.

Anyhoo the left Twin was a bit grumpy, so only walking on Friday and over the weekend but felt alright when I started out today. Both twins are acting out a bit tonight the bastards so have to see how I pull up tomorrow - could be back to walking - I'm whinging so I must care :) for the record, my chin is just fine.

Today's effort was a little slower but more consistent - 8k in exactly 1:00:00 - couldn't believe I got it bang on when I looked down at Garmy.

All good :)

Back In The Saddle

Today Total: 8kms
Week Total: 15.5kms
Month Total: 42kms
Year Total: 42kms

Well I've been back at it (finally).

2010 was a massive year with lots happening - some good, some bad.

Lowlights included:

- Mum having a mild stroke in January and a string of incidents since culminating in her collapsing while in hospital in December and stopping breathing - fortunately the crash team revived her but she has had to give up her home where she lived for 47 years and move into a nursing home.

- Missing out on the CEO's job at work after 16 years of blood, sweat & tears.

- Miscellaneous Halfpenny issues requiring heaps of time and emotional (and financial) effort.

Highlights included:

- Seeing Mum happy and relatively well(ish) in the nursing home - she really has an amazingly positive attitude to life and has taken her new reality and the selling of the house in her walker assisted stride!

- Getting a CEO job in another organisation :)

- Got the HP through a Cert IV in Performing Arts at Brent Street

Anyhoo enough of This Is Your Life and back to running..... I've been doing some walk/runs since the New Year started but today I did moe of a run/walk - 8k in just on 58 minutes - so just over 7 minute pace.

The left of the Evil Twins is giving me a bit of gyp tonight - but otherwise all good :)

Another Hot One

Today Total: 4k
Week Total: 10k
Month Total: 68k
Year Total: 68k

Actually covered 7k today but as I only ran the first 4 that is all I'm counting in my log.

Went out at 1pm in the heat of the day - I was feeling all right as heat usually doesn't effect me unduly - but I had some tightness in my upper back that was also causing tightness across my chest - discretion played the better part of stupidity and I decided to walk the last 3k.

4k in circa 30mins

All good :)

More Gooderer

Today Total: 6k
Week Total: 6k
Month Total: 64k
Year Total: 64k

Ran a lot more today and considering this route has a few gentle hills and circa 1k of spongy grass I'm pretty happy with the run.

Weighed myself today and I've dropped precisely 4kgs since New Years Day - also pretty chuffed with that too.

6k in 43.16 @ 7.13av

All in all, I'd say it's all good :)

BD Run

Today Total: 6k
Week Total: 38k
Month Total: 58k
Year Total: 58k

Nice paddle on the lake this morning then back to Sydney for a run around the bay.

6k in circa 45 minutes.

All good :)

Hot

Today Total: 6k
Week Total: 32k
Month Total: 52k
Year Total: 52k

Due to other commitments today 4.00pm was my only slot for a run. It was 34 degrees when Mrs 2P dropped me at the corner of Kanangra Drv and the Old Pacific Highway.

I don't usually feel the heat but I did today - felt pretty wrung out by the time I got in.

6k in 44.48

All good :)

Instant Rests

Today Total: 9k
Week Total: 26k
Month Total: 46k
Year Total: 46k

I got to practice my instant rests today when I took a tumble on a bush track between Gwandalan and Summerland Point - I obviously needed tha practice because I took quite a bit of bark off - no real damage though.

9k around undulating bush tracks, a few back streets and the grassy lake front in 1.10. Pretty slow but done.

All good :)

Undulations

Today Total: 5k
Week Total: 17k
Month Total: 37k
Year Total: 37k

5k around the undulating Gwandalan streets this evening finishing with 1.5k along the grassy foreshore of the lake.

5k in 37.27 so a bit slower than yesterdays pace but I guess some hills will do that to ya when you're unfit.

All good :)

Surf N' Turf

Today Total: 6k
Week Total: 12k
Month Total: 32k
Year Total: 32k

Well kind of..... Mrs 2P and I took the kayak out for a spin on the lake this morning - nothing strenuous, just a nice little paddle for arounf 30 minutes.

This arvo I did the same run as yesterday but a bit faster :) All up 6k in 42.42.

All good :)

Kanangra Drive

Today Total: 6k
Week Total: 6k
Month Total: 26k
Year Total: 26k

After mooching around at Wrners Bay, Belmont and Swansea Mrs 2P dropped me at the corner of the Old Pacific Highway and Kanangra Drive.

Poodled my way down on the soft dirt/sand verge for 6k in 44.18.

All good :)

Walkies

Just a 40 minute walk around the streets of Gwandalan when we arrived back up here this evening.

No running but all good :)

A Bit Faster

Today Total: 6k
Week Total: 20k
Month Total: 20k
Year Total: 20k

Out and back around the bay with more running today.

6k in 46.50 so a bit better pace than the last couple of days.

Pretty amazed at how well I've been pulling up considering my couch potato ways through 2009 and that I'm at my heaviest - hit just on 107kg between Christmas and New Year.

Oh well it's all good :)

Big Wheel Rollin

Today Total: 10k
Week Total: 14k
Month Total: 14k
Year Total: 14k

Yes Ewen the Twenty Tenties is going to be my decade :)

After a sweltering soaking mow the lawn recovery session this morning I rehydrated while the Sydney storms did their best.

Jammed for a couple of hours over some Blues backing tracks then headed out for a run/walk

Decided to push out some distance on the flat so headed out around the bay towards Canada Bay.

Plugged away for 10k in 84 minutes. 41/43 5k splits - happy with that.

Got back in just before the second storm front so good timing
.

All good :)

New Years Res 'N All That

Today Total: 4k
Week Total: 4k
Month Total: 4k
Year Total: 4k

Well it's a start - 4k in 34.30 - walked most of it but trotted bits too.

All good :)

Mighty Torrens

Today Total: 10kms
Week Total: 14kms
Month Total: 18kms
Year Total: 117kms

Friday I did a mow-the-lawn recovery session with an hour and a half of pruning thrown in - so I felt like I'd had a workout compared to my normal sedentary days. Had an afternoon flight to Adelaide to meet up with Mrs 2P who was there for work.

Saturday we spent a lot of the day walking - not fast but we certainly covered a lot of ground. In the late arvo we went down to the pool and I threw my arms into lactic shock by swimming 200m at my best pace - my arms were so unhappy with me I couldn't lift the towel high enough to dry my hair - what sort of a wimp have I become?

Anyhoo after a lovely (but chilly) day of wandering around and a magnificent lunch Mrs 2P headed off to the airport and I headed off on a run. First I headed East along the mighty Torrens till I got to a suspension bridge over the river (roughly 4k into the run) then headed back past the city to the West and then cut back across the river till I hit the street (Franklyn sp?) I knew would take me back to my digs on Flinders St at the Medina Grand Treasury.

All up 10k in 1.23.42 @ 8.22 average so as you can deduce a fair bit of walking in there but hey I'm happy and my splits were fairly consistent.

Flakey asked about my sleeping - I guess to sum it up "better but not good" - Thursday night was my best result by far - I had one 5hours 50minutes unbroken stint for a total of about 8 hours all up - I felt a million bucks on Friday as a result. The last couple of nights I've managed a couple of 3 hour unbroken stretches and managed about 6 hours total each night - this leaves me feeling a bit ordinary when I get out of bed but I chirp up as the day goes - the good thing is I'm not stressing about it at all - I just take each night as it comes and even if I'm not sleeping I'm happy to be resting and as I said it is definitely better than it was.

Just sittin back with an ice cold beer now (the sun is well and truly out fro the overcast earlier today) on the half-tennis court sized private balcony I have overlooking the courtyard fountain - ahhhh the serenity :)

All good!

Walkies

7kms in a smidge over 70 minutes. Nice walk around Canada Bay.

All good :)

Didn't Wanna Do It

Today Total: 4kms
Week Total: 4kms
Month Total: 8kms
Year Total: 107kms

Went back to work today after spending Monday & Tuesday off crook. Both Sunday & Monday night were shockers as far as the aponea is concerned and I was also still a bit chesty.

Had a much better sleep last night but felt shattered when I got home today - I didn't much feel like getting out for some exercise but I'm so sick and tired of feeling sick and tired that I pushed myself out the door.

4km run/walk thingee in 31.14 which was over a full minute faster when I did this circuit last week and I feel much brighter for having made the effort.

Here's hoping tonight will be full of zeds.

All good :)

Heaven & Hell

Well can't say it hasn't been interesting....

Pulled up pretty shin sore from my little excursion the other day so running again on Tuesday wasn't an option. My aponea was also worsening and with very little sleep I fell over with yet another man-flu - the green, gooey, chesty kind!

Wednesday we headed up to Coffs Harbour for a mini-break. I had mine inside the apartment staring at the ceiling Mrs 2P had a lovely time - I did manage a couple of walks but they left me exhausted.

Finally got on top of the aponea on Friday night - I still have disturbed sleep but for the last 2 nights I've managed 2 & 3 hour stretches between waking (as opposed to 2 or 3 mins). Used a combination of showering and using Fess (to clear the sinus) combined with a herbal (peppermint oil based thingee) and a nose strip. Not sure which bit is making the difference but I don't really care as long as it something works.

Feeling brighter today, just in time to fly back to Sydney :)

Hope to run again through the week.

All good :)

Answering Louise

Louise asked a good question about weight and the relationship to Aponea so I thought I'd make a post out of my answer.

First of all there is a relationship in my case, but it isn't easily defined as a certain amount of weight change. Though it is true there is a certain extension to the porch that overlooks the playground at the moment - so I won't shoot you Louise.

Following are my observations of my case:

Me

Firstly, my body shape could only ever be described as stocky - or fast twitch as I prefer to call it :) I stand around 5'7" give or take, and in peak condition weigh in at around 87kgs - you can give me all the BMI logic under the sun but I just don't get lighter than that. Typically in training my weight hovers around 92kgs - 94kgs. At this weight Mrs 2P reports I snore softly and appear to sleep soundly. At this weight I generally wake feeling refreshed and looking forward to the day.

History

My first encounter with Aponea was in 2004 after I sustained a serious injury during my assessment for Master in Kung Fu (late 2003). Not training I blew out to around 106kgs and this was when I discovered I am suseptible to Aponea. As it turns out I have allegedly (I never quite trust Dr's) smaller than average airholes and this is also accroding to the quacks a contributing factor. I'm also a little yeast intolerant as well which can at times leave me a bit wheezy.

Weight loss and careful diet i.e. started running and other training again, combined with a low to lowish/lowish carb, no dairy after lunch etc seemed to knock it on the head fairly quickly and I felt a million bucks again.

Since the intial case my weight has been up and down and on some occasions has peaked around the 105kg mark without Aponea becoming a problem - though Mrs 2P reports that my snoring becomes quite raucus once I get over 97kg to 98kg. Generally at this weight I'm slow to get started in the morning but perk up around mid morning.

This case

I've hovered around the 100kg mark for some time now, though with two back to back doses of man-flu my weight got up to over 103kgs. Coming off the second dose of man-flu the Aponea has hit with a vengence.

So to answer your question

From my observations

At sub 94kgs I gently snore

At over 97kgs my snoring progressively worsens to the point Mrs 2P wants to kill me

I've been to 105kgs without Aponea disturbing my sleep (i.e. I don't do the wakey chokey thing)

103kgs on the back of man-flu and Aponea has hit

Conclusion

There seems to be about 3kgs to 5kgs difference from a "healthy sleeping weight" to a "noisy one" and about a 10kgs difference for a "healthy sleeping weight" to a "dangerous one".

As I haven't been training since June I'm guessing that there is a fitness factor, or a muscule to fat ratio type thing happening too, which may have lowered the threshold of where the serious Aponeo kicks in?

Guess I better lose some weight :)

Long Time No Run

Today Total: 4kms
Week Total: 4kms
Month Total: 4kms
Year Total: 103kms

Well after being a couch potato since mid June I finally took the Titanic out for a spin.

I had to.

I've had a re-emergence of a medical condition I thought I'd seen the last of a number of years ago - Sleep Aponea. It seems to have been reignited by my most recent dose of man-flu.

At fist I thought I was just waking to cough, but it quickly became apparant I was waking to stop myself choking to death and it has been getting progressively worse over the last 2 weeks to the point where over the last 5 or 6 nights I literally wake up hundreds of times a night chocking and coughing. Generally I go straight back to sleep to do it all over again (one annoying thing is I tend to pick up my dream exactly where I left off and as generally your dreams are not that pleasant when your brain is convinved you're about to expire it doesn't add value to the overall experience). Though sometimes it gives me a bit of a fright and as my heartrate (and no doubt my blood pressure) are up it takes me a little while to resettle. It even gets me if I try to take a daytime nap.

The result is I'm knackered!

Anyhoo the last time I had this miserable bastard of an affliction, running and careful diet were the mainstays of my recovery and I will do just about anything to avoid a trip to the sleep clinic so as farked as I felt this arvo I donned the joggers and headed out the door - could be a blessing in disguise!

All up 4kms alternating a jog and a walk in 32.15 for an average of 8.04 per km.

All good :)