Snow, sinuses, missed sessions and the work that still counted

The weather had most of the country in a chokehold. I was no exception.

Nine inches of snow between Saturday night and Sunday night. Stuffed sinuses starting Saturday morning. The kind where breathing through your nose is optional at best and mouth-breathe only shows up when you’re working hard.

Sunday’s run got replaced by a shovel. Monday’s swim got cancelled thanks to a county travel advisory. Only essential personnel on the roads. Swimming for an IRONMAN didn’t make the list. Fair enough. I didn’t feel up to it anyway.

By Tuesday, things felt better. Not perfect. Better. It was dreadmill time. A zone 2 heart rate run. HR 100-129. Only 20 minutes. Breathing had been rough the last few days. I wasn’t sure if I’d have to adjust my paces with the sinuses clogged, but I set it and took off. I didn’t have to. If it were longer, I’d probably need to back it down. That’s not a problem. That’s information. It’s where I am right now.

Later, a one-hour bike. Indoors. Zwift. A lot of Watopia. My trainer disconnected briefly in the warmup. Power was messy. I reset and did exactly what I said I would. Normally that would throw me off and derail the workout. About 1 minute of chaos, then everything was back under control. Zone 4 at the top of the range. Just like I told my coach.

Side note, coaches have coaches too. I’m pretty objective with everyone’s data but my own. I can come up with any of a million excuses why it wasn’t where I wanted it. Today there were no excuses. I had a hiccup with my trainer, got it resolved and moved on.

The first four minutes of zone 4 were rough. Heavy breathing. Dead legs. Then I had a break to reset. The next stint was 3 minutes. It was easier, another break followed by 2 minutes, then 1 minute. Hard work done. Easy zone 2 spin to the end. Picked up my Zwift badge for the route I’d never rode before. It’s funny how those little virtual badges and levels make the indoor work a bit more intriguing.

Two bottles. One scoop of Skratch in each. Mostly for the sodium. Being a heavy sweater with high sodium loss makes plain water a no-go most of the time. Nothing fancy. Just supporting the system.

Even with the power issues early, I still got my unicorn. Honestly surprised by that. It’s not what mattered. What mattered was this. Despite weather, congestion, missed sessions and imperfect tech, the work didn’t unravel.

HRV is trending up. Not dramatically, enough. Still above last year’s baseline. The data says I’m likely back to normal in a couple days. We’ll see. Data doesn’t promise. It suggests.

I took what my body said I was able to do and did it.