W3 D3 yesterday.

I made a few strategic errors yesterday. I went for my W3D3 run with a near empty asthma inhaler. I took a puff of the stuff as I went out the door, a bit later than I normally do. I didn't realize it was the last puff in the container! I also didn't take my heart rate watch.

You can see where this is going, can't you?

Anyway, the run proceeded OK to start with, 5 minute walk, 90 second run, walk again, 3 minute run.,walk, 90 second walk, 90 second run, walk, then the 3 minute run again. That's where the problems surfaced.

It was at this point that a touch of asthma kicked in. About 15 seconds into the final run. I reached for my trusty spray... and no luck, ...empty.
I tried to keep running and the breathing passages just got tighter and tighter, constricting by the second. Initially I tried to slow down my run, and it didn't seem to help one bit. Just a bit more to go, it thought. Finally, Ullrey said just one more minute. However, my lunges and brain said "no more minutes". I felt extremely faint and dizzy and decided to stop running before I fell over. I just wasn't getting enough oxygen, and I think my heart was racing extremely fast. Aghh.... I hated doing this as it's the first time in the program that I had to walk early. Oh, the shame.

Anyway, I continued along my route and eventually got home.

I normally walk about 9 minutes longer than the Ullrey podcast in order to do a particular route along Lake Ontario that I enjoy.

When I finally stopped and synced my Nike +I found that I was 1 minute per mile faster than my previous 2 week 3 runs.

So, overall, I did a few things wrong here that I'll have to be more careful about in the future.
1) I took my pre-run puff of asthma inhaler too close to the actual run. It's always recommended to do this about 10 - 15 minutes before the exercise in order to avoid exercise induced asthma.
2) I may have not really taken any of the medicine at all. I believe the last few puffs of spray in an inhaler cartridge are propellant and not medicine. I'm not 100% certain of this, but the stuff seems to taste different.
3) I went out with an empty container.
4) I ran too fast.
5) I didn't have my heart rate watch to see how that was going.
6) Given all of the above, I probably should have stopped running sooner.

Probably you could get away with doing any one of these, but the combination of all did me in to the point of a bit of danger, and also sabotaged the run.
I've had asthma for about 48 of my 54 years and am at the point that it's generally controlled much better than ever. That said, I still am an asthmatic, and asthma can be dangerous. I don't want to sound overly dramatic, however in retrospect I really must be careful of this. I can't recall feeling this close to collapse even in my 10 years of ice hockey! I will be more careful!

All that said, I completed the day a few minutes quicker than any other day despite the problems. Therefore, with proper control of the medication I'm confidant that I'll continue to progress going forward.

For those with asthma, I must note that in the past when I was more fit, I found I needed medication les and less as I progressed. I really believe aerobic exercise is a bit of a cure for asthma as opposed to asthma being a reason not to do aerobic exercise. A sound, gradual program, along with proper preventative actions, such as taking an early preventative puff of the medication, and not starting out to quickly, mean you can run with no problem. I just happened to not do the right things on this given day, and vow to be more careful in the future.