Running With Asthma

I wanted to tell you what a relief it is to find this blog. I am 45, and have had asthma all my life, although my family didn’t realize it until I was in my. I grew up believing I couldn’t run, and never even made the attempt until a few years ago. Unfortunately, my asthma has gotten worse over time, thanks to the scarring caused by each severe attack I’ve had – or so I’m told. Of course, the climate and rampant pollen in Mississippi are no help, either. But I decided to try running a few years ago, and have done it a bit off and on since then (my life has been crazy hectic up until just recently, raising two kids on my own, one of whom has a serious mental illness, so consistency has not been my watch word). It has been discouraging, because all of the training plans I could find were impossible for me to even begin – run all out for 30 seconds and walk for 45, then do it again? I could run the first 30 seconds. It felt like no one else who ever tried to run had to cope with asthma like mine. What advice I could find was along the lines of “take your medication”. Yeah…big help there. Recently, though, I’ve taken up boxing, purely on my own, and while I love it (you have no idea!) and I’m developing lots of muscle, it isn’t moving the pudge. And all I can read on boxing insists I need to run at least 2-3 days a week. I wasn’t excited by the prospect, but I feel much better about it after having come across your blog. What do you know – I’m not alone in the difficulties of training to run! And while I don’t know that I’ll ever run a marathon, or even a 5K, at least I know that someone with asthma can improve, and doing it at the pace that works for my breathing is not only fine, but smart. So thank you. It’s funny how hearing what you really know is true, from someone else, can make so much difference. 🙂

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