Feeling Fatigue? You May be About to be Awesome

I've heard about bio-rhythms for as long as I can remember, and as I age, I am starting to notice my own body cycles a little bit more. One particular oddity stands out in my mind and one I'm just starting to see as a pattern is in my body's ability to accommodate a hard workout. A week ago, and for the week prior, I noticed a discernible decline in my ability to get through a full-speed workout without giving out half-way or two-thirds of the way in. The workouts seemed to get progressively worse as time went by. Then a couple days ago, things went the other way - I was getting stronger and stronger, faster and faster - and on Tuesday I had one of the best workouts I've had in years. This has happened before but only now am I beginning to discern that indeed it follows a pattern. I need time to define what is happening, if I can. Is it my diet? I have had more protein lately. Is it my sleep? I've had some bad nights and some good ones. Maybe something else? Cue the Twilight Zone music.

Tracking Efforting

To use ESPN Radio's vernacular, I really did a lot of "efforting" today. It's been warm for several weeks now and averaging in the 90's each day. Needless to say, the outdoor pool is starting to heat up - even with the chiller running at night. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that's when I start complaining. Today I had a double whammy. The pool temp was high and the weather forecasters were saying that there was an ozone warning - a health warning - even the fit were waned to avoid exertion. Well I'm not one to follow the weather man's advice all the time so this AM I did my swim thing ... and I paid for it. Not only was my speed poor, despite some serious efforting, but I could feel my lungs hurting, like when I had the flu some years ago. I can only conclude that the extra ozone in the atmosphere makes oxygen uptake more difficult (hence, the warnings). But all is not bad, dear readers. I came away from all this with a new idea! I am going to add two new columns to my exercise log - "efforting" and "speed". I'm hoping I can use this daily info to see patterns and trends in my bio-rhythms, swim performance, etc. I expect knowing what has been and may be (projections) will help me understand my own body system better and maybe even push me to the next level. While none of this is posted on this blog, I will be sure to let you guys know if this helps any. In the meantime, could you just cool things down a little?