Before the Superbowl party time kicked off, Greg, Casey and I ran 6 miles in beautiful, sunny and warmish weather. We changed up the route a bit, splitting the 6 in two 3's. The first 3 allowed our 4 legged running partner to come along. Max enjoyed the trot and fresh air, and he helped us impress some little kids that were outside playing as we ran past. "They are running soooooo fast!" one of them exclaimed. Aw...thanks, kid. I'll remember that when I feel slow. ;)
After the first 3, we were at 10:07 pace. I had a hacking incident around 2.5. I was struggling to breathe, even though I was wearing a new amazing discovery: a Breathe Right strip. Wow those are awesome. After I put it on, I could breathe through my nose and my voice didn't sound so nasal. I had to make myself breathe in through my nose while running because I just never do that. Eventually though, I was sucking as much air in through my mouth like a fish out of water. The pace was too fast for me Sunday. My breathing couldn't keep up.
After dropping Max off and having a nice little break, we started out again. But I didn't last long before my breathing was out of control again. My throat felt as if it had shrunk down to the size of a straw and was tight. I tried breathing through my nose again, thinking I could pull in more air that way, but that resulted in a snotty sniff thanks to the cool temps getting all of that flowing. So, somewhere around 4, I stopped. I offered the watch to Greg and Casey, but they insisted that we could just slow down a bit and it would be OK.
The new pace was way better. I tried to not be disappointed in the fact that I couldn't make it happen this weekend. But man, it was nice to be able to chat a little and feel like I was on a relaxed run. Around mile 5 I could feel that I was losing it again though. Breathing was getting hard. I tried to recover on a downhill before the long gradual incline. I slowed down a lot. In the last stretch, I pushed as hard as I could, but I felt soooo crappy not being able to breathe well. It wasn't a pain kind of thing, it was more of a crummy feeling. Hard to explain.
So, we did 6. I'm very happy with it. And, as it was pointed out to me again, it was a pace that we were doing before after a lot more training. I'm frustrated with my breathing because I don't have much explanation for it. I've been heavier and in worse shape. But maybe I'm pushing myself harder now than I have in the past, and in a month or so will see the results? I also know for a fact that my allergies are way worse than they've been in a long time. Despite the shots, I'm getting worse. So, in order to try to remove that as a factor, I'm going to start taking Allegra again and see if it does anything.
So, it was a really great run even though I had my frustrations. I still know I'm doing the right thing by training and having someone to push me makes all the difference. I'm still looking forward to what can happen by March 18th and then again in the beginning of May. Here's to another week of working really hard!
And....Breath Right strips are awesome!
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