Asthmatic Running

I've been trying to run once a week. Believe me when you have my level of asthma once a week is a challenge in itself. However I believe if I loose some weight I will have less breathing issues and I watched a show once on a man who had a heart condition (he was 70-something) and he didn't want to live anymore but he didn't want his suicide to look like it was a suicide so he went out running and he just ran as fast as he could until he collapsed on the street somewhere and he thought his heart was giving up. But he was fine enough to get himself home later and the next night he tried again only this time he got further away before he collapsed. He kept running every night and every night he got further and further until he realized that instead of ending his life he was making his heart stronger so he ran every day for fun instead of trying to kill himself.

So I started running with a dog once a week. At first (in the winter) I could only make it one block (I count "a block" as sidewalk until it's interrupted by a street, so every street I cross I add a block to my counting) before it was hard to breathe. Then this spring I found I could make it two blocks. Finally today I made it three blocks, but my breathing - though labored- was relatively clear. I could still take whole breaths. So I walked another block and then tried running one more. I made it the whole block (I ran four blocks today!! NEW RECORD!) but that turned out to be too much.

That's when my throat and brachial tubes seemed to shrink in size significantly and I couldn't breathe. I started gasping for oxygen like a fish out of water and I started expelling air carefully like I was blowing out a candle on a birthday cake. I immediately started walking home because I did not bring an inhaler out with me (I'll have to remember to take it with me if I'm going to push myself like this in the future) and my throat felt like it was closing off all together. Even my gasping and puffing had a loud wheeze in it.

I began visualizing my airways opening much in the same fashion as I learned to visualize my netherparts opening to assist in the birth of my children. As a result of my concentration on regulating my breathing (and not passing out) my dog took advantage of my lack of control on him and began marking every post we walked by (usually I don't let him do that). But at the point my arms started feeling week and I began shaking I started yanking him along because I did NOT want to have a severe attack on the street!

I got home although I wonder if people thought I was having a seizure with the way I was gasping - although I'm just fat enough that people MIGHT have thought I was going into labor LOL. Picture me with one hand over my midriff fatpad leaning far back to inhale a huge gasp of air and then bending forward pushing air out like I was blowing out a candle and shuffling along home as fast as I could. I got the dog put on his chain right before my legs started going weak and shaky.

I rushed inside with my little I-can't-breathe shuffle and sat at my computer desk. Luckily my inhaler was already out on the desk. I had to actually take TWO whole pulls on it before my airways opened up again and the shaking ceased.

Lesson learned!! I will take my inhaler with me from now on!! In the meantime YAY! I MADE IT FOUR BLOCKS!! We'll see how far I get NEXT week!