The drugs don't work, but they're not making me worse.....

Following last week's run, I decided it was best to see the Docs about my coughing and general asthma being a pain. Despite doubling my regular dose of inhaler, it was having no effect. So the Doc prescribed a course of oral steroids to help whilst my cold/manflu/case of what ever it is.

Unfortunately, they don't seem to have had much of an effect. My coughing is just as bad, but I'm not coughing up much gunk any more which is something I suppose. However, come this afternoon I was at Ant's again, and facing doing the 4 mile run that we did the first week. Things started less than perfectly given that I only made it a few hundred yards before stopping to cough so hard it felt like I was going to be sick. I had feared this would happen, but having expected it made it easier to push past it. At least until I needed to stop again maybe half a mile down the track.

But thankfully, as with my second run, my lungs did seem to get the idea that this was happening and they stopped putting up such a fight and got on with their job. It did help that I had walked up the big first hill as that taxed me quite heavily before, and as I have a kayaking trip in the morning I wasn't willing to jeopardise it by going at it full on. I was still struggling with keeping my rhythm, but it felt like I was doing a better job of maintaining it. Ant thinks my stride pattern is becoming nice and even, although I do have a habit of feeling like I'm going too slowly and wanting to stride out and speed up. One day I'll be able to do that, but I'm not ready for it yet!!

As is going to become obligatory, there are the usual photos that Ant insists on taking of me looking awesome. And I still hate running across ploughed fields.

 One thing that is a plus is that I've not used my inhaler once today, but I did need to stop for coughing fits three or four times as well as slow to a walk in a few places. So whilst my lungs may not feel much better, they do appear to be slightly less second rate than two weeks ago. And that has had an effect on the run time. This weeks run took 50 minutes and 39 seconds despite the walking. It wasn't lightening fast, but a touch more than 2 minutes faster than last time, which is a fair improvement given my asthma and that this is only my third run. If I hadn't had to stop and cough so much I suspect it would have been under 50 minutes, which is the next goal.

Whilst the run was quicker, I still look slightly less than awesome than usual when I finished. Although Ant does have a habit of capturing me at only my very finest.

As with before, I felt better than I had expected. But when you expect to be a quivering wreck, I don't suppose that's too much of a feat. But it was clear that given the final section of run is all uphill, that I couldn't have made it much further. Equally, I guess a training run should push me to my limits of endurance, and it's doing just that!