New Hair, New Shoes, Triathlons Not Raced and Dealing with Asthma

My hair is pretty. I was one to tell people I'd never dye my hair when it turned gray. Well, it's been turning gray for about 10 years now and I haven't dyed it until today. What changed my mind? Well, highlights look better when the remaining hair is darker than the highlights. Who'd of thunk it? On to shoes.

I'm not sure that I've been blogging about my anticipation of the New Balance 1224s coming out this month. They're the update to the 1223s, which I loved, but alas, they died and my running store didn't have them in my size. I came home with Saucony's instead. Now I really do enjoy running in the Saucony's, but I wanted to give the 1224s a try.

Pretty, huh? They're nice and cushy, but that could be noticing that because my Saucony's are close to dead. So far I like them, but I've only run about 9 miles. They're not even dirty yet.

So the signs for the Orange County International Triathlon have been going up for the past 2 weeks. Now I knew about this triathlon when I signed up for the See Jane Tri Relay with Star (swim) and my mom (bike) on September 27th. I mean, who signs up for their first triathlon (super sprint) in June and just 3 months later is training for an Olympic. Well, there are a few of us crazies.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm happy to go up north and run this race with my mom and Star, who will be there in spirit as her boss canceled her vacation. I'll swim and run my heart out and cheer my mom on the bike. However, on October 5th, when I'm waking up at 3 am to drive my butt to San Dimas and race my first Olympic, I'll be thinking about how I could have woken up at 4:00 am and ridden down to the lake. No worries about parking, Jeremy could have walked down a few blocks to cheer me on the bike and run. I wouldn't have to wake him up early to come with me. Well, there's always next year!

Bonus Topic! Coping with Exercise and Allergy Induced Asthma during a race.

So we all know, or those of you who read my race report know, I had my worst run, maybe race, ever at Pac Coast. I talked to my doctor about it and he thinks I was pushing my exercise induced asthma threshold (yea me!, really yea me!) but the allergy induced part was pushing me over the edge. I gave my coach this peace of info and here is the tip I got.

Stop.

And now you're saying "Oh so, all I have to do is stop and it'll go away? I should have thought of that, dumb ass." Yes, dumb ass. Let me try and explain it.

So you start at intensity A "walking the dogs", work to B "pushing myself through the race" and all of a sudden, or maybe not all of a sudden, you end up at intensity C which is the "Oh shit bears, I can't breath, I can't get a quality breath, my inhaler is now useless."

If you're like me you try and push through. You think maybe if I can just get it over with, things will be okay. This doesn't work. Then you think, maybe if I dial it back a little, everything will come together. Um, that doesn't work either. Apparently what really needs to happen is those little tubes in your lungs that are now inflamed, need a bit of time to calm down.

So when you get to the "oh shit bears", you have to dial it all the way back to the "walking the dogs". If you try to muscle through with the "pushing myself through the race", you'll never be able to catch your breath and move through it. You'll end up slowing down, missing your projected goal. Hopefully you won't post a DNF.

If you have asthma and this happens to you, try out my coach's advice and report back. I'd love to hear the testimonials.