Post Attack A Lac Run
Wednesday night I went to my run group and had every intention of running intervals with a couple of friends who are way more bad ass than I. After about the 3rd interval my right knee's arthritis began to shout NO BITCH NO and I had to walk. I sent my friends on their merry way and decided to walk out the sharp screaming burn in my knee when I realized something.
I was nearly hyperventilating.
I have adult onset asthma which I acquired at around age 18. This isn't a new condition. In fact, I've had it longer than I didn't have it. I have a very good maintenance drug that keeps me out of my rescue inhaler and honestly since I've lost weight I've never once had to use it. Not ONCE. Not even on the Peachtree Road Race where I nearly died from heatstroke. Heatstroke - yes. Asthma - nope.
I have gotten kind of lax about my maintenance drugs. It's not been a PLAN or anything it's just that well, my asthma has been FIIIINE. So I didn't think twice about not taking along a rescue inhaler.
And there I was, alone on the trail with my friends receding into the woods and all I can feel is the wet sponge my lungs have become. I can't breathe. I cough and spit trying to get out whatever liquid has decided to gather and push on. I was at the magical spot around the lake where it's the same to go forward as go back, there was no lesser distance.
I ran into another friend who finished the distance while I hacked and gasped for air, slowly making my way around.
After a couple of breathing treatments and a 72 hour rest I decided I was in good enough place to hit the pavement again. This time, I was armed.
I went out planning about four miles. Maybe 3.5. I just wanted to see how the lungs felt, how the legs felt and what I could do with intervals that didn't make me want to die a horrible "drowning in my own lungs" sort of death.
This is literally seconds before I checked Strava. Having just busted out two miles at some pretty comfortable intervals and only needing to hit my inhaler once I was feeling kinda good. I thought I'd take a look at my pace, assess how I felt and decide how far on the greenway I was going to go.
At that point I realized - I hadn't turned on Strava.
There is literally nothing that makes me scream FUCK IT and ruins a run more than forgetting to turn on Strava. It's not that I need to actually prove that I did the run (despite my run clubs edicts to the contrary). It's that I like to understand from a physiology how different paces feel. I feel great at 15 minute pace. I feel terrible at 13. How do I feel? How far did I go, what were my splits? These things help me understand how my body is handling my runs and so because of that, I like to know.
And I'd just fucked it up and NOT turned on Strava.
I resisted the urge to throw a tantrum and decided to add one mile and call it, after all no need to tempt the asthma gods.
I ran down the hill toward the greenway and noticed this.
I did the next mile and drug my butt back up the hill and wandered down the path to this event. It was apparently a gardening/farming sale and lots of folks had lovely plants of various sorts for sale. I stood looking at flowers and things with sweat pouring off me (and strava paused because I had finally remembered to turn it on) and a lady said "Were you running?" I laughed and said "Sort of" and at that point she said "We're the farm who grows all the fruits and veggies for the King of Pops."
This was literally like telling me you're the Queen of Awesome. I told her so. She laughed and said they were packing up soon, and she had a couple of popsicles left and would I like one? OMG YES I WOULD I AM DYING OF SWEAT.
Blackberry and Honey popsicle given to me by a kind farmer lady because I was out running and looked hot? It was truly meant to be.
One of the great things about these popsicles is that their sticks all say something fun inside the pop. I now wish I had a jazz collection.
I meandered back through the woods with my bounty, strava on and rocking a 20 minute pace without a care in the world. I had my tunes rocking and amazing blackberries sweetened with honey and frozen that were cooling me.
A 20 minute pace? My body liked that just fine.
I'm going to watch the fall weather though. Clearly something is in the air that when I breathe it in causes some inflammation. I shouldn't have had to use my rescue inhaler at all. Today I'd like to hit the pavement again but we're got a tropical storm thing going on.
It wasn't a great return to training run. But man, it was a really great run.
I was nearly hyperventilating.
I have adult onset asthma which I acquired at around age 18. This isn't a new condition. In fact, I've had it longer than I didn't have it. I have a very good maintenance drug that keeps me out of my rescue inhaler and honestly since I've lost weight I've never once had to use it. Not ONCE. Not even on the Peachtree Road Race where I nearly died from heatstroke. Heatstroke - yes. Asthma - nope.
I have gotten kind of lax about my maintenance drugs. It's not been a PLAN or anything it's just that well, my asthma has been FIIIINE. So I didn't think twice about not taking along a rescue inhaler.
And there I was, alone on the trail with my friends receding into the woods and all I can feel is the wet sponge my lungs have become. I can't breathe. I cough and spit trying to get out whatever liquid has decided to gather and push on. I was at the magical spot around the lake where it's the same to go forward as go back, there was no lesser distance.
I ran into another friend who finished the distance while I hacked and gasped for air, slowly making my way around.
After a couple of breathing treatments and a 72 hour rest I decided I was in good enough place to hit the pavement again. This time, I was armed.
At that point I realized - I hadn't turned on Strava.
There is literally nothing that makes me scream FUCK IT and ruins a run more than forgetting to turn on Strava. It's not that I need to actually prove that I did the run (despite my run clubs edicts to the contrary). It's that I like to understand from a physiology how different paces feel. I feel great at 15 minute pace. I feel terrible at 13. How do I feel? How far did I go, what were my splits? These things help me understand how my body is handling my runs and so because of that, I like to know.
And I'd just fucked it up and NOT turned on Strava.
I resisted the urge to throw a tantrum and decided to add one mile and call it, after all no need to tempt the asthma gods.
I ran down the hill toward the greenway and noticed this.
This was literally like telling me you're the Queen of Awesome. I told her so. She laughed and said they were packing up soon, and she had a couple of popsicles left and would I like one? OMG YES I WOULD I AM DYING OF SWEAT.
I meandered back through the woods with my bounty, strava on and rocking a 20 minute pace without a care in the world. I had my tunes rocking and amazing blackberries sweetened with honey and frozen that were cooling me.
A 20 minute pace? My body liked that just fine.
I'm going to watch the fall weather though. Clearly something is in the air that when I breathe it in causes some inflammation. I shouldn't have had to use my rescue inhaler at all. Today I'd like to hit the pavement again but we're got a tropical storm thing going on.
It wasn't a great return to training run. But man, it was a really great run.
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