Thursday, December 3, 2009

Confessions

I have to confess, I am not even a fair weather runner. I am a prfect weathe runner. It bad it's always close to perfect in my basement.
The main reason for my present running situation are my lungs. I have a tough time breathing even sitting typing this. Breathing is not something I normally think about. But on cold dry days it is hard to get a full breath. This started just before my 50th B-day. The goal that year was to run under 5 minutes for a mile. Should be fairly easy for one who ran 4:18 at age 39.But as I trained harder the less lung function I had. At 43 and not running I race Cindy in a 200 to prove a point and easily ran 28sec. At age 50 I couldn't run under 33 without wheezing and hacking for the next hour. It seemed like my lungs had shrunk. Cindy made me a appointment with a pulmonary specialist. Ofcourse I was a bit better than normal But damn I was always towards the front of races and now I suffered to be in the middle. Doctor tells me "well you're not 25 anymore". Duh. Hell I aint even 45 any more. I should be at the top of the lung function chart for my age! I should be winning my age group unless someone really good shows up. But all the meds for asthma and other stuff did nothing. So here I sit 56 years old and can't run outside too often in the winter because the cold/dry/altitude makes me sick. So not too many pics of the beautiful area I live this winter.(and there is only 1 other place I'd live) It's time to embrace the machine downstairs and be fit enough this spring to enjoy my running and watch the mountains green up. Then I win an age group, ha.

4 comments:

Jess said...

I feel that pain. My lungs did not agree with the 18 degree full moon run. Am i really going to have to think about a mill on really cold days? There is nothing worse in my mind that running on a mill. But then again, the inability to get a deep breath, or come close to keeping up last night, not to mention the hacking cough that ensued....:-)

brownie said...

Where is the other place you'd live?

Anton said...

Monterey, CA. Right, John? (Or Aptos, etc.)

Manitou is pretty top-notch...

John O said...

Monterrey would be right.