The grasshopper has landed.

Well, it's official - I OWN A CAR!!! We went over to Guildford yesterday and smuggled him away in all his lime green splendorrr.

I've driven in it twice and although the first time was shakey as I've been learning in a diesel and Baz takes petrol, so my clutch control suffered a bit at first!! Today was great though, no problems now I've got used to his revvage. ;-)

I'm also totally psyched to tell yas that this morning I ran for 22 minutes non-stop. Then 1 x 2 minutes as well. So I've actually ran for 24 minutes today!! Bloody brilliant feeling and although this was on 9 lpm O2, I feel that I can start cutting down on this a bit more even for longer intervals. I feel better having the 8-9 lpm for the longest run as it's after a while that I seem to still get hypoxic, but I think I'm now at the stage where 4-6 lpm would be plenty for runs up to 10 minutes. So HA! Take that, hypoxia! You won't be beating moi.

Then to make my working outness ultra-enhanced, I got to go over the gym (I drove Daddio over, hehe) and since I had clearly done my cardio for today, I made it a pure weights/ core stability session. So a good 40 minutes of hard full body weight work, followed by crunches, side crunches, side leg raises, planks ect to work those core musceys. Really enjoyed it and I didn't even bother to TAKE oxygen with me since it was just short reps, no cardio, so just had a 'normal person workout' with no tubes! lol.
I did also have gym session yesterday, which I did 35 minutes cycling, 10 minutes elliptical and stretches.
All in all, a blardy good weekends worth of training which I think I'll be reaping the benefits from. Oh I'll reap them big time baby.

Righty, that's all for now, as always hope you're guten xxx

Pimp my LUNG FUNCTION !!!!! :-D

112%!!!!! WHOOOOOO >falls off of proverbial chair<

Can you tell that clinic went well today?! Yep, blows were 112% up from 85% just one month ago, and get this - my gas transfer is now 59%!!!! Up from 36%!!! No wonder I've been needing less oxygen and running so much further these past couple of weeks. Something has started working seriously well ;-)

My blood gases were also almost normal! Only like, 0.7 points to go before I'm normal. (Well, as far as gases go lol) I'm so pleased about today I practically skipped out of the hospital and to be honest, would have kissed my Doctor if a) she weren't female and b) it wasn't quite innapropriate. Still, what I'm saying is that I'm blinking chuffed with things and I don't think I'd be in that position without my brilliant Doctors and Physios.
Obviously I am really proud that I've come along so much because I've put in alot of hard work too. It's totally paying off in terms of my overall well being and getting my lung volumes up so high again.

Now all I need to do is keep this thang going and hopefully keep getting better and better! Weight still an issue so they're pushing more supplements but to be honest I think if I can achieve what I have done with my lungs in the past few months, then gaining a few pounds isn't that hard compared... or it shouldn't be.

Workouts have also gone well this week, most days have been 5 miles in total, with 10 minutes running in various length intervals. I had a day off running today, just walked but still covered 4-5 miles.
Tomorrow will be 3 mile walk and 3x2 minute runs, quite easy in preparation for Sunday - the 'long run' lol. Which I'll be aiming for 18 minutes non stop. All I can say is BRING. IT. ON.

xxx

A mile-and-a-half-stone plus half a mile! Ahem - yeah, two miles.

Wheyyyy! Sunday was, as always, the day of reckoning in terms of training for me. I always aim to increase my longest run of the week by about 2 minutes, and also increase the longest interval by at least a minute.
I was all worked up thinking that my legs felt tired and that I would only manage 10-12 minutes without stopping and that it would be a pretty tedious and mundane session.
I totally changed when I got warmed up and got running though and managed a full 16 minutes without stopping! I then did 2 x 2 minutes, meaning that I did TWENTY minutes in total of running in the session!! This has been something that I've wanted to get to for a while now so it felt really fab. My next short term goal will be to run for 20 minutes continuously, which will really be something. And I think I should be able to manage that in the next few weeks. At 6 miles an hour, this is 2 miles so I'll be properly chuffed if I can do that and it'll be real proof of how far things have come along.

I then did a 3 mile walk with Mum later in the day. Surprisingly, my legs didn't feel very tired at all today and I did a session of 4 x 2 min runs with 20 minutes walking in and around on the treadmill, plus another 3 mile walk this evening.

I still don't have very tired legs, but since I've run for 4 days consecutively I'll have an easy day tomorrow with a couple of walks to get the mileage, but no treadmill sessions.
I'll run again on wednesday, probably 3 x 4 minutes, and as always keep up with the long walks.

In other newbydews, I've actually booked my driving test for July 16th and will proceed to poo myself up until that time. Exciting stuff though to think I may be roadtripping away by August!!

Erm... what else... I made a pretty mean curry tonight. Well, not mean as in it made me cry but you know, would be mean to all the other curries in the playground because it knows it's the best, sort of mean. I later had an orange with weird white bits in the segments that tasted all dry and not that nice. The rest of the orange was pretty yum though.

Well, as you can see, my life revolves around treadmilling, curry, peeling dissapointing oranges, green cars, and pooing myself about issues surrounding being able to drive the green car. So erm, I'll shower you with more updates as soon as there is some. Which will be quite soon. Stay tuned. xxx

Energy gels, tired legs and a car named Basil

Howdy doody,

Well, I've got to say that there's not an awful lot to report recently... things are pretty busy but steady.
I've been doing 6-10 minutes of jogging most days, as well as 2-4 mile walks, averaging 5 miles a day on foot. Which is very good, although I've not really managed to cut down on the o2 much yet as the breathlessness seems stable too. As in, definately never getting worse, but also not a great deal better during exercise. Still, I'm definately okay at rest bar the odd moment, and still feeling well.
I did have a funny turn the other day though... which I'm putting down to tiredness from a late night (babysitting) and loads of activity. I basically felt like a leadweight all day, and at one point, when no one was about, just had a lie down on the floor in the hallway. Couldn't be arsed to move to a more sensible lying down spot, so erm, the floor did the job. Weird. After a good nights sleep and also plenty of high carb snacks in the evening, I was back to my old self! Needless to say, that was my 'easy' day this week, with just 3 miles gentle walking. I've taken the precaution of either an energy gel or a small handful of sweets (naughty naughty) a bit before sessions as I think I need that burst of energy to aid good glycogen stores and keep up the fuel, plus I could do with some sneaky calories anyway.
I'll admit that the running interval session today felt a bit of an effort - my legs were a bit tweaky and heavy, and I was a little bit more brethless than usual, perhaps due to the humidity today... I could really do with a gym session to take that impact down for a day - hopefully tomorrow I'll get over there.
I'm rather showy-offingly proud to report that I am getting a CAR next week. Hooo yes. A new ford fiesta zetec in a pretty fabulous green colour.
Naturally, then, I'm calling him Basil. Baz will also be acceptable. Along with Shaz (Sharron, my trusty and very loud nebuliser) it's quite the smashing name duo, no?
I haven't got my licence yet, but I'll be able to learn in Basil between lessons. Speed things up a bit I hope!

I have a week till clinic... can't believe how quickly it comes round. And I think they'll be fairly happy with things, I expect my blows to be great and blood gases stable if not better, but there's the pressing issue of having not gained weight yet... still 42-43 by my scales so no different to last clinic although 1kg up from March. It's just sort of... not budging anymore even though I feel like I'm eating loads. Oh well, my overall health is flipping great compared so I'm not going to obsess over it.. just maybe a few more calshakes this week ;-D

So erm, how boring of me, really! Sorry for lack of progress of late and hope you're all doing well. Blogging out... x

PB in so many forms. All good.

Hola.

Things have been pretty kewl since my last blogfest. Mostly nice things like guests for dinner and loads of training :-)
Funnily enough, I noticed that the day after the shuttle test, where I obviously did stuff with quite low sats for a short time, I had loads of stiffness in my calves, I wonder if it was anything to do with lactic... or probably just co-incidence... I'll try not to blame everything on exercise tests!

Anywho, I was still up nice and early at 7.30 on saturday for a short (15 min) walk with 2 x 4 mins jogging before breakfast and cheesecake making (for dinner party) before heading off to the gym. I had the luxury of an empty gym bar two ladies there for the 1st five minutes of my session! Free run or what? I had a total mansized workout too: 35 minutes moderate-hard cycling, 20 minutes quite intense elliptical trainer, and I think 8 minutes slow walk to cool down. On top of the morning 'recovery' session, this was a very good day.
I was reallly tired by 10pm so once the guests had said goodbye at 11 I was off! I was then up and about at 8.30 this morning for a 3 mile walk with Mum, then a pretty chillaxed day until my afternoon session... Get. This.

I warmed up with a walk for 8 minutes, then did 12 (!!) yes, TWELVE minutes without stopping of jogging heehheeeee. Pretty darm chuffed. And then decided to just properly kick some treadmill butt and do another 6 minutes! So Ive had 18 minutes of jogging today which has beaten last sundays previous best by 4 minutes! And I wasn't tooo knackered either. The whole session with recoveries and warm up/cool down was a solid 34 minutes, which I reckon covered about 2-2.5 miles. So nearly 5.5 miles today!! PB party over here.
Actually, I divulge in to telling you that the post title is a result of the fact that my jogging PB was partially attributed to my PB (peanut butter) feast at bar- reakfast and la-unch. I had PB in my porridge and PB on my toast tooo... I like peanut butter. Actually I probably get through almost quarter of a jar a day most days. >How american< Good energy food I guess!

Right... in other news, I have become a gardener. Mum is always gardening and is actually quite good at it, some genes which she did not pass on to moi. Nevertheless, I felt like helping out and was assigned to job of sowing the lettuce and basil seeds. And also the challenge of making some improvised faux propagators. (Clear, breathable covers for seed trays/pots to keep the insects out and the warmth in)
I got creative with some clingfilm and a pencil to poke holes in it, then skipped off to water the other plants and feed them. A short while later, whilst sipping tea and admiring the garden which I was now taking partial credit for... a Mum goes "Why on EARTH is there pieces of clingfilm blowing about in my garden?!"
It was now that I realised. Wrapping up the plant pots like my dinner, without fastening the film, had resulted in my carefully fashioned covers being swept away in the wind like synthetic tumbleweed. And I never thought it would be me who would run around the garden chasing bits of clingfilm around the garden shouting "MY PROPOGATORSSSSS!!" I did catch them and firmly secure them back with some rubber bands though, and all was well.

Well, you can see I've had MORE than enough excitement for one weekend. Tomorrow morning will be a little 2 miler first thing, and then another in the evening. Gonna give these leggies a little respite before more running!! XXX

Much ado about puffing

Not reaaallly! The old exercise test went okay today, ish.
I arrived quite early to allow for a leisurely change in to my hardcore fitness gear and a nervous wee (the wee bit before the dressing bit obviously, I wasn't that nervous). Then twiddled my thumbs for a bit while the Supernintendant Physio supernintended around doing general supernintendery things. Which included getting the CD player out of the storecupboard. Now, I at first thought that she was getting it out so that we could have music on whilst I hopped on the treadmill or bike ect... how WRONG I was. No, no, no... apparently I like grabbing sticks at the wrong end. What we were actually doing today was, in modified form, the bleep test. Memories of PE lessons came flooding back. I thought that I'd be just walking and running on the treadmill and doing sats but apparently that's not really the most controlled way to assess and reassess my fitness/ o2 levels at exact intervals, so ho hum.
It was in fact a VERY modified bleep test called the Incremental Shuttle Walking Test (ISWT). Each shuttle is 10 metres, and starts very slow, then increases every minute so you're jogging. There's 12 levels, and I'm proud to say I completed it. Because it's quite easy.
The test certainly puts the mental in incremental... snails are faster. However it was also difficult to keep turning round every 10 metres and wait for the bleep or try and keep up with it ect ect.
My sats? Drum roll... much the same given that this was not a maximal test by any means *only jogging for about 3 mins). They didn't start going down much untill 4-5 minutes in, once at a mild-moderate walking pace. Once the walk was brisk and then a bit later fast enough to jog, my sats average 82, with the lowest being 78. Low, but this was was room air. It does indicate that I still need just the 2 litres for walking moderately for any more than a few minutes, and that I will still be sticking on the 10litres for longer running intervals (of more than 3 minutes). However, I said that I would be comfortable cutting the o2 down to 6 litres whilst I do short intervals of 2 minutes, because I don't start having really low sats untill a few minutes in.
From this, the plan is to repeat this same test a couple of times in a few weeks and see how things improve, then once they plateau, we'll do the oxygen titration test again.
This is the treadmill one, where I'll simulate a normal to intense workout and we'll see how much o2 I need to maintain sats above 88%. I last did this as an inpatient, and my sats were 81% after 4 minutes jogging on 10 litres o2. So I'll look forward to seeing those figures a bit higher!!

I also nipped up to the ward to get my steroid shot done. Always good to get these fine buttocks out. And that was it! All over and done with in less than 1 1/2 hours! Off homey again and have had a shorter walk totally 3.5 miles today. Because I'm doing an early jog session tomorrow, followed by some cross training in the gym. So I'll be a bit shattered I think!

More reports to come... bet you can't wait xxx

Happy Mondays, many goings on to chew over.

Another action packed week here - just croizy. Firstly I have had my first driving lesson in almost a YEAR! Argh... I can't believe it had been so long but this is another step in the right direction getting things sorted and getting me back on track (well road actually).
I'm with a new instructor who lives just up the road which is convenient, and the first lesson went brilliantly given that I thought I'd forgotten it all. No major hiccups at all, just road positioning and a few clicky gear changes.
I also went to sit for the kids up the road three times this week, which is never very hard work at all but they are really generous with paying ;-) so that'll help alot with paying for driving.
I moved out of my house at uni this week. I went up on wednesday morning and then Dad came to pick me and my mountain of 'stuff' up in the car on thursday. It was lovely to see the girls again and a big weight off my shoulders to get all my stuff out of there a month early, although I wasn't totally prepared for the sheer amount of it, and have been sorting and unpacking ever since!

And in more important news, the exercise this week has gone fantastically! Tuesday I think I did a few miles with just a couple of short jog intervals. Wednesday I went to the gym at uni and had a pretty good session: 35 mins moderate cycling, 15 minutes elliptical trainer and a 20 minute walk plus stretches.
On thursday, I just had a 2 mile walk as I was shattered from the efforts of the past two days! Which meant that Friday I was quite refreshed and ready for a good run. I did a 3 mile walk in the morning and then in the evening had a 30 minute treadmill sesh, which included 12 minutes worth of jogging at a higher incline then usual. I broke it into 1 x 4 minutes, 2 x 3 minutes, and 1 x 2 minutes. And obviously warm up, recovery and cool down was walking. This meant that I covered about 5 miles in the day! The best I've done since I was last well!
Saturday I thought I'd take it a little more easy to make sure I didn't get too tired or achey. I had a 2.5 mile walk with my family, so quite a relaxed pace to allow for chatting! Then later it was 16 minutes on Blacky the tread - including 6 minutes of running as 2 x 2 minutes. I did these slightly faster than usual as well since they were short bursts (get me, speed sessions lol). So a total of no more than 4 miles I reckon.
Then yesterday... A DOUBLE PB!! I was well happy with this lot: 3 mile walk in the morning, then 30 minute sesh in the afternoon with a 10 minute run!!! No stopping for 10 minutes and felt quite good too although a bit tired. I then had 3 minutes walking recovery and went on to do 1 x 4 minutes! So another fairly long interval and also a grand total of 14 minutes! Followed by a good cool down and stretch. Hheheheehehehe. Pretty good that.
The other interesting thing is that over the past week, I've felt that the 10lpm of o2 is doing slightly more for me than it was before - as in even though I still breathe very hard during the runs, I don't feel much lactic building up like before. I think this is what allowed me to run for longer and also may mean that I'm not so hypoxic by the end of a run now, so am not going so anaerobic!
I'll know if this theory is true on Friday, when I go for a reassessment to see how my oxygen levels are now whilst running. I'm not sure if I'll start off without just to get a baseline, or if we'll just titrate the O2 based on sats throughout a run.
Hopefully we'll be able to reduce the O2 a bit for my sessions soon. I'll not be too dissapointed if sats are still too low though, because I'm feeling so good compared now that it seems stupid to get depressed over numbers. Fingers crossed for good results on Friday!
I'm definately feeling yesterdays efforts (and indeed the whole weeks') in my legs, so today is just an easy day. No runs, but a 3 miles walk this morning and another 1-2 miles later on. All at a moderate pace and on 2 litres 02.

Laters xxx