A Room-Clearing Cough

Good morning all. I’m going to make this a quick post and I have no photos from yesterday to share. There wasn’t anything really outstanding to document. Yesterday I was soo pumped about Ireland, but my excitement slowly started to fade as I realized I wasn’t feeling too great. I think I probably should have just rested on Monday night, rather than running that three mile recovery run.

I was supposed to run 6 miles last night, according to my training plan, but as I headed home after work on the subway I had a major coughing attack. I had pretty much been coughing consistently all day. It was like a tickle in my throat that I could not get rid of. But then on the subway this tickle decided to attack me and I was coughing incessantly. And I was coughing so hard that tears started streaming down my face. Yeah – it was not pretty. I considered getting off the subway at 59th street, just so I could cough without shame. The man next to me first turned away and then actually got up from his seat and stood by the door. How embarrassing! I felt like a leper.

I made it to 86th street with more than a few glares and looks of reproach from other passengers and then continued to cough all the way home. It was awful. So I decided to curl up on the couch, drink tea, and take a cough suppressant instead of running. I also took a puff of my inhaler and that really seemed to help. So now I’m not sure if it’s my allergies,  a cold or my asthma acting up.

Running with Asthma

Yup – I have an inhaler because I have allergy induced asthma…and I’m a runner. Kind of seems like a paradox right? I only recently developed asthma. When we got Murphy (our cat) back in 2006, I quickly realized I was allergic to him, but he’d already become part of our family and I wasn’t about to give him up.

I mean look at him! How could I ever give him up?

So instead, I visited an allergist (who was awesome btw) and now take a daily allergy pill, use Nasonex and have a rescue inhaler. I actually started getting allergy shots last year, but stopped that process only a few months later.

 The ironic part is that marathon training, both this year and last, has actually helped with my asthma. I’ve had to use my inhaler less and less. I think my long runs actually trained my body to breathe in a different way and made my lung capacity stronger.

Have any other runners with asthma or other breathing problems experienced a similar or different reaction? Advice?

Anyway – that’s my random tangent of the day. The cough is much better now, but still lingering a bit. I’m still not entirely sure of the cause yet. I may try to run 4-5 miles tonight on the treadmill, since weather.com indicates that the wind is supposed to be ferocious and I don’t feel like fighting that.

Hope you all have a good Hump Day! And remember, next time you see someone having a coughing fit on mass transit, don’t glare at them and make them feel uncomfortable because you can be sure they already feel like an outcast.

P.S. – The new book I’m reading is: Cutting for Stone