If you've been reading this blog regularly, you'll know that July was a struggle for me. It was on of the warmest Julys in NYC Tri-State history. My asthma has been out of control making any type of run difficult and deflating. Thanks to Amy, I saw an asthma specialist who is also a runner and triathlete. My primary care doc is specialized in pulmonary medicine. While he is a very good doctor, he's not athlete and I found it difficult to talk to him about my running. Anyway....I had a great visit with this new doc. He understood my struggles and which types of workouts trigger my asthma more than others. After 2 breathing tests and talking about my current medications, The doc decided that my current daily maintenance medications (Advair HFA and Singulair) did not need adjusting. He put me on a prednisone blast to reduce the inflammation and prescribed a new rescue inhaler (Xopenex instead of Ventolin) that I should also use before a run. He also suggested that I take my harder workouts, i.e., inside to the treadmill until cooler weather arrives.
Then something funny happened. For at least this past week, the mornings have been much cooler. This past week (the one ending this past Sunday) was the best week of running I've had in a while. I nailed last Tuesday's track workout (2 x 3200), my recovery runs were at a comfortable 8:35 pace and my 5 mile tempo run (which I did on the TM) was at 7:45 pace. The icing on the cake came this past Sunday when I joined up with the NYRR Long Training Run for 11 miles at 8:30 pace. Everything about the run felt good. I fueled and hydrated well, I didn't struggle on the hills, and I had some kick left at the end for a faster finish.
It's good to be feeling better and to be running in some cooler weather. I'm noticing it's still slightly dark when I leave at 5:30 a.m. I hope that means that cooler weather is right around the corner.
No comments:
Post a Comment