Today will make the 3rd walk since my hospital stint. I was only going to walk 3 miles but , for some reason I kept walking. I did 5.2 miles, the farthest I’ve gone in 3 weeks.
Yeah..it was tough.. I was short of breath the entire walk and wheezing up a storm but, I kept going anyway. I was so focused on the music I was listening to, that I didn’t care that much about how hard I was breathing. I forced myself to take a short break about mid way so that I wouldn’t pass out. Thats pretty pathetic huh.. Whats even more bizarre is that sometimes I have to actually tell myself , to STOP for a breath break ! ! The way I perceive my own labored breathing pattern gets somehow, screwed up. I think that because I’m always short of breath to some degree, that I don’t notice the added exertion that my body is experiencing when I take long walk. A lot of times I don’t know how pooped out I’m getting until I literally keel over from air hunger. On the opposite extreme, I can be sitting there doing nothing physical at all and then start experiencing severe shortness of breath.. Though this is a weird pnenomina, its apparently not that uncommon in severe asthmatics.
Another thing that I noticed today, was that despite this recent bout, my average pace has actually increased. Over this graded 5 mile course, my average pace is now 13.90 , down from 14:10 . I think my walking technique has improved to the point where it requires very little conscience effort . My lungs are horrible but my legs are still in good shape. Maybe there’s still hope of doing this 1/2 marathon next month.
