My second hour long run

 I am on the border of feeling disappointed with not having any progress in the last 4months. So I've been running for 5 months. In the first run I had a ton of progress. First of all the first two weeks I just had an asthma attack. By the time it was over, I would go for another run and come back home and just not breath again. I was also pretty sure that it was not caused by my running. Until I just realized it was caused by my running.

But I was hoping for more progress with my asthma after that. I was hoping that I would go for runs and know when I need my inhaler... But I still don't. So I'm disappointed that I'm still out of breath, I still can't run longer than a couple of minutes... I'm disappointed that 5 months in and I still don't know how to breathe. Because i can't implement all the breathing tips... At some point I thought maybe it would help if I was lighter. I lost 5kg as soon as I started and then nothing. But then I gained 3 kg when I started going for a 2k run everyday. And then there was no change in that.

As soon as I decided that the 2k runs are just not cutting it, and started going on 5k runs, I went down those 3 kg again. And was more or less stabilized at 80kg. But then again nothing else changed and I was just left there. 

I decided I will not give up though.

So I decided to focus on one goal that I can kind of control. So I can't control my lungs and I can't control my weight. But I want to run a marathon. So I changed my approach. No more 5 k runs. I will now start running one hour runs. I already went on one before this and today was my second hour run. 

I covered a little more than 7kilometers. These are the longest distances I ever run. So I'm excited about that least.  During the run I thought about quitting a few times. I thought about it as soon as I started. I started planning my exit. I thought I can do 2k and just finish. But then I thought I already tried the lazy way and it didn't work. So I'm going to keep at it. About half way through and nearing the end of my first loop I thought I'm near my house so I can call it quits. But when I saw the door to my house I felt like I had more in me. So I thought I would just keep in the street where my sister would come home from, so that when she arrives I will hitch a ride and help carry the groceries inside. But my sister didn't come until my hour was up. So that's how I ended up making it an hour. At some point the ball of my foot hurt, but I remembered when I used to work at the restaurant, and at the beginning of each season my feet would hurt, but I knew this pain lasts for a few days, so I just used to ignore it and then my feet got stronger and there was no pain anymore. So I thought to approach this the same way. Around 50 minutes in I realized that the pain became numbness that started in the ball of my foot and took over my two middle toes. But I only had another 10 minutes so I thought it would be ok.

-I started with a 5 minute dynamic warmup

-2 pumps of ventolin after that, before my run.

- 2 pumps of ventolin around the 5th kilometer.

I had an allergic asthma reaction a few hours before my run, but I managed to control it, so going into the run I was just fine.

I have another 4-5 posts about my previous runs, but I haven't finished them and I think it would be more useful for me to just let go of them, post this one and just keep posting now on. So here is my post after a few unposted ones. Here we go...

Why blog Asthma runner.

 The reason I'm writing this blog is that there is very limited info about the process of doing this, running with asthma. Many people testify after they overcome their barriers that this is doable. But I'm 5 months into running and I've seen some progress, but not much. Also, it's allergy season and my progress is kind of gone. I cannot do some of the things you are supposed to do, like breathing through the nose for a minute every 5 minutes of running, because my nose-ways are blocked.

There's not much info out there for me to figure out what is normal and what is asthma out of all the things going on during my run. And there's not enough info anywhere about when I'm supposed to use my inhaler. Everything is up to the person.

So here I am, blogging the process of trying to figure out what is due to my no working out for the past 13 years, and what is due toy asthma.

To be fair I did know I was supposed to use my inhaler on my last run. More about that run on the next post.

All the runs before that.

I started trying to run in 2018. I woke up, got dressed, downloaded the Nike run club app, and set out to run. I didn't google how to start or anything. It was September and I had been wanting to start all summer long, but I knew I'm sensitive to the heat of the Cypriot Desert Heat. The weather was perfect I thought for my first run, so off I went.

I walked for about a song and then started running as fast as I could. Now that I think about it, it went pretty well. I managed to get to about 700 meters before I had to stop and get back home. And I got back home and landed on my bed in one of my worst Asthma attacks ever. It was the time I had to stop avoiding it and finally booked an appointment with a pneumologist. I managed to meet the doctor around December, and I was officially diagnosed with asthma. For the next few months my doctor had me undergo different exams and see different other doctors, and about a year later of treatment I thought I was in the position to start running. I had bought a miband and was excited to get running. My nephews and niece visit every weekend, and we had a specific time of day to go to the park to play, so i decided to start running. I started with 15 minutes of running. My niece became my coach and she wouldn't leave me stop running until 15 minutes were up. This lasted a couple of weekends, but then things started getting in the way and the running stopped. I did this again a year later, in the summer of 2020. Again with the kids. This time the kids tried running with me.

In January I decided to take this more seriously. I found a serious motivation, I joined the conqueror challenges, I chose the prettiest medal of all, and started the challenge. The medal was in fact a really good motive for me, my sister says it's because I'm goal-oriented. And it did what it had to do. Keep me hooked for 60 days, until it became a habit. 

The first month I started, started in January 2021, I had a lot of asthma attacks. I just didn't realize they were connected to my running. As I kept going my lungs got stronger and I stopped having asthma attacks. This process took about 3 weeks. I started with a couch to 5k program, and I managed to keep up for like a month, but then I stopped getting better. And I didn't really try much more. My sister also came home from where she lives and stayed with us for 3 weeks. I kept running, just not as organized as I did before. on her last week here I didn't run at all. When she left I went for a 2K run and my time was much better. Compared to my 2K run while she was here, my time was 4 minutes faster. Went from 21 minutes to 17. So I really like that progress. I also liked how easy and quick it was to run 2K. And decided to run 2K every day. Since it only takes 17 minutes, I made it home in time almost every day so that I can go for a run. The bad thing I did was that I didn't have time to stretch or warm-up. I did this for 2 months. I stopped having any kind of progress with my lungs and I started gaining weight. So I tried going back to 5k's. I was happy I managed to keep my new 2K pace for my experimental first 5K run. I run the same pace, but about 2 kilometers in I was dead. I couldn't keep going. I thought I went out too fast and should call my sister to come pick me up. But then I had this crazy thought... I thought, can I really physically die? I mean... will I even faint?? it seemed pretty improbable. So I kept running at the same pace and I really did not die. I did get home and as I knock on the door, there's a delay because nobody is near to get the door fast, and suddenly a chill passes through me and I start feeling dizzy. I sit on the porch step and I feel worse. My mom opens the door and I can't even get a glass of water. I have to lay down. I just had to lay down for a couple of minutes and everything got better. My mom was pretty worried... But nothing serious beyond that. Maybe things wouldn't get as bad if I used my inhaler, but I don't really know... maybe it would still get as bad.

My first 6k Run

This is the run that made me think of blogging about this.

For a number of reasons, I decided to try a 6k run. Some of the major reasons were that I've run a couple of 5k runs before in combination with the fact that I like to plan out my routes beforehand, trying to make sure I won't land on my doorstep at the end of the run missing 10 meters from rounding up to the next kilometer. So as I'm planning my 5k run after only running 2k runs for about a month because i realized I stopped making progress strength-wise, and there's a point in my route that I reach the halfway point and then turn back. But I noticed that the end of that road was only 500 meters away. So as I'm planning my route I think to myself, will I physically die if I run an extra kilometer? This is a thought I make often and sometimes the answer is yeah I might. But I didn't yet. At the same time, this is the first time I hear about something called dynamic warmup. So I search for a dynamic warmup and I find one that I believe is doable, and I actually warm up before I venture out.

I do believe in warmups because I've always had this thing where I stop getting tired once my lungs are warm enough, but at the same time I never warm up. During this warmup, I did have to use my breathing, but it just made my lungs warm so I thought this would aid with the running. So I set out for my first 6k having in mind that I will skip the extra 500+500 meters in the middle if I feel like I can't do it. But by that moment I actually feel like I can do this. So I do the extra kilometer. 

I get to 5 kilometers and I'm on a very steep hill, it's the toughest part of my run, sometimes I manage to run part of it. But it's super steep, the inclination must be 60%, and I'm not even exaggerating, and this part comes after 300 meters of uphill, just not as steep as this part and I feel like my legs are giving up. So I decide that I'm not really looking for scratches all over my face so I take a break. It's the first time since I started running that I actually need a break. I can't even walk... So I stop and sit on the floor for a couple of minutes and I realize that the actual problem is that I'm not breathing. So I pull out my inhaler, spray twice and I'm good to go. My last kilometer was actually one of my favorites. So I guess I'm 5 months in and I still don't know when to use my inhaler. I was diagnosed with asthma 2 years ago, after ignoring it for 10 years, and my doctor did say I should use the inhaler even at the thought of not breathing, but I still don't know when to use the inhaler.

I spend a couple of days before this run researching, trying to understand when running out of breath while running is normal, and up to what degree. My asthma is allergic, so it doesn't happen when I run on the treadmill. Every now and then I'll run on the treadmill and I can run 8 minutes straight before I have to walk for a minute. But out on the street, I can barely run for 2 minutes. 

So this is it. I decided I have to put everything down and research in a more fragmented way and put the pieces together and figure it out. Before I do that I will put down some things down of my first 5 months of running, just because I might remember something that helps out with any conclusions, and then every time I run will be about observation and testing.

Also one of the problems with me is that I feel like using my Ventolin is a bit of cheating. But I have to get over that, and not hurt my body like this.

Here's the data of the run:

6kilometers

1 pump of Ventolin before the run

Needed another 2 pumps of Ventolin @5k

No breathing through the nose since I've been going through some kind of allergic nasal inflammation for the past couple of weeks.