Take a moment. Breathe. Feel the air in your body, your whole body. It reaches every part. It feeds, powers even that twitch in your eyebrow.
I went to my allergist last week. She cured my allergies years ago. Love her for that, really. So why the visit, eh? No, my eyes haven't suddenly welled up from the neighbors mowing the lawn (we have weeds that kind of look like grass. My roommate did mow them last week. Looks much better, but still...shabby). No, allergies are not my problem. The thing is that I can't breathe. Or, at least I can't breathe when I'm running fast or up a hill, and fast up a hill? Only in my happiest dreams.
I have asthma (have I mentioned that?), and it's not responding to my old meds like it used to. I've been running with it since I was 12 or 13. Nothing gets it going like speedwork or hillwork. I was on the track the other day. Just 3x1 mile hard. Six min pace or less. Naturally, I wheeze a bit running at 6 min but no bad. Got worse when I picked it up on my second mile. Tighter in the throat. On the third lap of my final mile, however (when I was running 5:35 pace or so), air sounded like a train going in, and my exhale was literally a scream. The air vibrated my vocal cords and i quite literally screamed my way down the track. Not wanting to collapse from lack of oxygen (have i mentioned the fact that you need air to run?), i slowed down and finished at 5:45. It was annoying.
Yesterday I wheezed my way through 8.5 hard. You know, after a while, it bothers my legs. I think they don't get quite enough oxygen to keep 'em happy. Now, i didn't have an all-out attack like the speedwork day, which is nice. I'm on a new medication that i have to take twice daily. i feel like an addict. So maybe this one will work better than the previous (three? four? i don't remember). and if--in a month--i still sound like a train, i have anther drug to try. and if that one doesn't work in the next month, don't worry, because she gave me yet another inhaler to test. after that, who knows.
