Stay away from her!

Good morning and happy Tuesday!

Last night I went to the gym after work.  On the to-do list was 15 minutes on the stairs from hell followed by a 2 mile run and then some light weights work.

What actually got done? 13 minutes on the stairs from hell, 75 squats, 15 push ups, and 10 cross fit push ups.  Then I went home.

(What is a cross fit push up?  I saw them on the ESPN Cross Fit Competitions.  It's a pushup but you start out lying on the ground, extend your arms fully, then come back to the ground, lift your hands for a second, and repeat, or at least that's how they did them on ESPN.)

What happened you ask?  Well that's a good question.
The stairs always get my heart rate up and leave me out of breath, but within reason.  Yesterday however I really couldn't breathe.  My heart rate was sky high and my chest was burning.  I tried to hang in there for those last 2 minutes but really couldn't.  As soon as I got off the machine I started coughing.  First just a little cough here and there but within minutes I was fully hacking up a lung, to the point where it almost sounded like a lung was going to come up.  I was able to get things under control after about 5 minutes but the burning still lingered so I didn't dare go near another cardio machine.  If someone was coughing like that near me, I'd surely run the other direction.

I'm guessing it was chest congestion so I did those few other exercises and then sent myself home.  I thought maybe it was a warning of a cold so I called it an early night.

I feel fine now but am off to TRX in about an hour and we'll see how that goes.  Plus, I'm subbing tonight, so another test.

This reminds me of one of the first times I tried to run.  This had to have been at least 15 years ago.  I ran (maybe) a quarter of a mile to end up at home gagging over the toilet.  Nice, right? 

Going back to the planned run, I found that a certain segment of one of my spin rides is perfect for banging out 2 miles at varying paces, so I wanted to share it.

Warm up - I usually walk around 3 to start, moving up to 3.5 or 4.0 for about 5 minutes.  For this I'll just keep my ipod on shuffle.
The run....
The Bongo Song Live (8:38) - This song has a solid beat and two parts that are very conducive to sprints. I'm slow so I usually start at 5.5, working my way up to 6.0 and then hitting 7.5 for the sprints.  Whenever I really need to recover I go back to 5.5 trying not to stay there for too long.
Dog Days Are Over (4:13) - Get to 6.0 and keep it steady there, bringing the pace up to about 6.5 or 7.0 on the chorus.
Have a Nice Day (3:49) - Try to stay between 6.0 and 6.5 with accelerations on the chorus if I feel like it.
There's one more song but I'll have to add it in later.

Overall it's about 20 minutes and just over 2 miles of running (obviously depending on your speed).  Perfect!