This morning was day three of working out with Noah with a new tool in our arsenal – an inhaler! Since I’ve been working with him, some days when I push to very high levels, I have trouble breathing. For a while I thought it was just conditioning, but even as my conditioning improved, my tendency to wheeze hasn’t gone away. It’s not just the “oh wow I’m working hard I need to catch my breath” feeling that comes with pushing your heart rate way up. No, it’s a gasping, wheezing, feeling that almost induces panic until I stop entirely and take shallow breaths still I can get in a deep one.
Since it was to the point where it was affecting my ability to progress in my workouts, I finally decided last Friday to e-mail my doctor about it, figuring at this point I had nothing to lose and possibly everything to gain. I suspected exercise-induced asthma, so I laid out the details of what’s been occurring and asked if that was a possibility. He agreed and prescribed an inhaler, and told me to keep an eye on my symptoms and let him know if they start occurring at other times or under other circumstances.
So, one puff on the inhaler 30 minutes before I work out, and life is good. Noah, of course, is taking full advantage of this opportunity to push me even harder … evil!!