Hi c/Running,

I would like some advice on how to overcome/circumvent asthma-induced pain, while running.

I’m an avid runner, but I struggle with asthma for which I do take well-adjusted medication. I have difficulty running more than a couple minutes at a time. Whenever I start running, my lungs quickly begin to hurt (it’s not my sides, my muscles could do so much more, but it’s actually my lungs hurting), the pain becoming so bad, that I have to pause for more than five minutes after just two, three minutes of running. It takes between 20 to 30 minutes of this stop-and-go to finally “acclimate” myself enough to be able to run normally. As you can imagine, this can get very annoying and frustrating and makes running with a group nearly impossible.

On a side-note: When I am running outside, I experience this no matter which season it is or where I am running (forest, urban, field), but when I am running on a treadmill at the gym, I usually don’t experience it so severely. Maybe something with the AC?

  1. Do You have similar experiences and can You share what helped you?

  2. What can I do to reduce the time it takes me to start-up?

  3. What can I do to have no/less asthma-induced pain, when starting to run?

  4. What kind of training schedule would you recommend for people with asthma? Are normal training schedules just stretched out regarding the increases in intensity over time or do I need a completely different approach?

Thank You for any advice on the matter!

  • AttackBunny@lemmy.world
    3·
    11 months ago

    I tend to struggle a lot more when it’s exceptionally humid or dry. I have a pretty small window of “this is great” weather. And my “too humid” is probably a lot lower than most since I live somewhere typically not humid.

    Start your runs slower, and see if it stops. I struggle with it too, but I’ve learned if I start my runs, at like 9:00 mile, and then on mile two, speed up a little, then mile 3+ I’m free to run 7:30 (or faster sometimes, when I’m lucky) without issue.

    My allergist suggested inhaler 30 min before a run, but obviously that can’t be every day. So if I know it’s going to be exceptionally high in pollen or humidity, I do that. It helps a little.

    Also, do you have allergies? Is there a coronation between high pollen days?

    It sounds to me like the conditioned air is providing relief from either temp (it takes me a while to acclimate to season changes), pollen or humidity

    • Arxir@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      11 months ago

      Thank you for your input! Others have suggested humidity too, which I had considered, but eventually discarded, because symptoms occurred both during humid and dry weather, which seemed contradictory. Thanks for sharing that you have a similar issue and point to humidity because of this “window” of acceptable humidity.

      I tried inhaling Salbutamol, when pain started, but found the relief lacking.

      Yes, I do have allergies against several types of pollen.

      Thanks for the run times. I’ll try those next time.