299 training days

I’ve had a tough time with injuries and sicknesses over the past 6 months. Ever since my bout with pneumonia and pleurisy in November of 2013, I’ve been up and down with my health. I wanted to see how my training has fared over the past year by simply looking at the number of days I trained in each month. I’m happy if I train for around 83% of the days (which means that in a month, I get about 5 days off).

The graph above depicts the percentage of days I trained each month. The only RED month was last November when I was sicker than a dog. Last month (March) was not pretty either, but I count it as a positive month overall (I did qualify for Boston and finished my first Ironman). It is interesting to note that for the whole year (365 days) from April-2013 to March-2014, I trained for a total of 299 days which translates to 81.9%. Not great, but not bad…

I woke up with a sore back today. It hurt. I took 400mg of Advil and was fine for most of the day, but it is hurting as I write this. I have decided to take today and tomorrow off from training to rest my back. The thing that scares me is that it really hurts when I breathe deep. I am scared of the painful pleurisy bout I had last year with very similar breathing-pain symptoms. I hope this is just a passing niggle.