Running with Asthma

Asthma sucks. 

If you've never had an asthma attack, let me share with you the feeling. The most common attack is a mild to moderate attack and just because it's mild doesn't mean it's easy to handle. It is a kick in the lungs. 

Basically, it feels like someone has you in a bear hug or is pressing down on your lungs. When I have an asthma attack my lungs burn, my back hurts, I cough, I lean forward as if it might help, but it doesn't really. An asthma attack is scary because you can't breath, which I hear is pretty essential for living.

When I was a kid, I would panic when I had asthma attacks. I would cry, intensifying the attack threefold. I still panic slightly when I start wheezing and feel a tightening in my chest, which is what happened today. 

I walked about a half a mile, ran until I hit the 2 mile marker on the pavement and then started wheezing like a big ol' asthmatic. I had to walk to my car and use my inhaler and try to calm down before it got worse. I think it's the whole running in nature thing that triggers my asthma.  I run at the Genesys nature trail around the hospital, which looks gorgeous, but preys on my allergies.

After I used my inhaler, I went back to my run and was able to run two miles straight and walk another one. I was so proud of myself at the end of my run - for not giving up when I could have and for not letting my asthma get in the way. 

Sometimes I have to keep in mind that just because I have asthma, doesn't mean I can't. 

Hurrah for cross-training!

I have discovered the joys of cross -training!

Good old yoga journal got me hooked to a yoga/running cross-training program. And Runners World even has an article of their own about yoga for runners.

To gear up for running I've been using an elliptical machine for half an hour, run/walk for ten to twenty minutes and finish up with yoga poses to stretch out my muscles. I'm trying to transition from using the elliptical machine to running on my own. The machine is really helpful because it absorbs a lot of the impact, so I'm not used to running without the support. I think I'm doing a pretty good job transitioning from machine support to self support. And yoga is really helpful because it teaches me how to control my breathe, stretches muscles I work when I run and strengthens them too.

So fire up for cross-training!

OMG! I can't believe you posted that picture of me!

Today, I untagged a photo of myself on Facebook.

What does that mean?

Let me give a brief explanation of "tagging" photos on Facebook. Say a friend posts pictures from a party and I'm in one of the photos. (This is the actual scenario, by the way.) This friend can choose to associate my name with the photo by "tagging" me. The friend can draw a square that will appear around the image of me when someone hovers the mouse cursor over my name. Also, when people view my profile, they have an option that says, "see more photos of Theresa." They can click this and photos are that "tagged" with my name will appear.

I untagged a photo. I removed the association of myself to that picture. I didn't want anyone to see this photo and know it was me. This is why I cannot give up on losing weight. I am so ashamed of how I look in photos, I would rather not be associated with the photo. I am (in a not exactly the way people use the term sort of way) attempting to disassociate from my own body. I'm guessing this is probably oh, I don't know... not good for me?

If it had been a physical photo my friend stuck on a bulletin board rather than a electronic photo album, I would have wanted to rip up the picture and the burn the negatives. Yes, lots of people do the oh-god-I-look-horrible-in-that-photo thing, but I really, really don't want to feel like that about my body no matter how bad the photo. (I want to just recognize it as that's a badly taken photo, not that's a bad photo of myself and I look so ugly). I know my size is not horrific, but I don't feel healthy and it's something kind of awful that I will untag a photo (and delete it if I could) instead of just commenting "OMG! LOL. That's such a bad picture." and moving on. (Like the chatspeak there? I knew you would.)

Tomorrow, I'm going to the doctor and asking him about weight loss and whether running the Crim in August is not a crazy, crazy goal for me. I think it's physically possible ... if I lose weight, but I also need to talk him about nutrition things and what the type of precautions I need to take if I can do the running by August - if I should walk the Crim instead of running it? Do I need to do anything different than my non-asthmatic runners?

He can't give me a magic pill, but I'm hoping I can at least talk to him about a plan of action for myself and find out if I'm on the right track. Maybe he can give me some tips or something.