Staying hydrated, keeping calm

Today's been a weird day.

Another not so hot night of 'sleep' - it must be the side-effects of the antibiotics that are making me feel this way. I mean, I'm usually a bit of an insomniac, but there's this added lethargy which is unusual. Gulped down 600 mL (20 ounces) of water to help refresh me ...

A coughing fit this morning that had me gasping for air - what is up with that? That immediately brought my mood down - today's my day to get back to the gym. I'm not supposed to cough! I was not pleased. Steadily made my way through another 600 mL of water on the way to work ... stuck in traffic for an extra 20 minutes this morning since I left the house 7 minutes later than usual - damn school traffic!

I got to the university, started doing some work, and then all of a sudden an enormous wave of nausea and dizziness. It was bad. Really bad -- all I could think was, oh my god, I'm either going to throw up or faint. Here, in my office, I don't know if I can stop it. It was purely the mortifying thought of vomiting in my office (in the bin of course) that stopped me. I had to calm myself down - just breathe through it (not easy when deep breaths seem to trigger a cough attack) ... relax ... I wanted to drink some water, but the thought of opening my mouth and swallowing anything at that point was out of the question. So I just tried to tell myself to hold on and not give in to the feelings - I really don't know what it was, it was very disconcerting. I don't think I can properly explain -- it was just this overwhelming feeling of sickness ... and just before going to class. Perhaps I'm having an allergic reaction to teaching this course! Anyway.

I survived. After another 600 mL of water I felt better, not much but the dizziness had stopped and the nausea had subsided a bit. In any case, nothing was going to stop me from getting to the gym, so I headed there right after class.

As I got on the treadmill I started feeling a bit anxious. What if I start to feel ill? What if I have a coughing attack? What if I'm just not well enough to be here? I'd just have to cross those bridges if it came to that --- first I needed to decide what my goal for the day would be. Should I set a calorie target? A distance target? A time target?

I figured I'd go with time. At first I was just going to do 40 minutes, and then I thought - no, let's go straight into an hour. I don't have to rush. Not setting a target on calories or distance took some pressure off. This way I was just focusing on walking for an hour. The goal - just complete the one-hour walk.

So, I hit random on my iPod (something I normally don't do, my workouts are usually very playlist specific) and I started. I didn't walk fast, I kept a relatively steady pace. When I felt like it I increased my pace, and then if I felt like I was going to start coughing I slowed it down a bit. I found out that I felt better going slightly slower and walking at an incline versus walking fast with no incline. I ended up alternating (15 minutes regular walking, 15 minutes on a 2% incline, 10 minutes regular walking, 15 minutes on a 2% incline, 5 minutes with no incline and cooling down)

In the end I finished my hour. I felt fine. A few bronchial spasms in the middle but nothing major. Another 600 mL bottle of water done.

Time: 1 hour

Average speed: 5.7 km/hr (3.5 mi/hr) - not fast, but it was fine for today

Distance: 5.55 km (3.44 miles)

Calories burned: 333

So, nothing major, but at least I've restarted. I hope that getting back into a more normal routine instead of just spending hours and hours at my desk writing will help me feel better. We'll see. I'm just relieved that I made it to the gym.

It's just after 2 p.m. -- lots of work left to do and lots of water left to drink.