Where'd that come from?

How is it you can go from feeling so good one minute, to totally BLAH the next back to okay in a 20 min turnaround? Seems my body wanted to give me a wake up call and let me know who was in control.

Saturday was a pretty regular day - woke up - didn't do much at all apart from the usual house stuff and then headed off to the pools in the afternoon for my swim session. I felt fine through the warm up and 900m worth of drills - nothing, not an inckling of what was about to happen. The only thing I was feeling were tight shoulders however I even went so far as to let Chris the coach know how good I was feeling and how I had run a total of 23km for the week and felt good.

As we headed into our main set of 6 x 300m (done as 50m, 100m 150m in 40, 1:20, 2:00 respectively) I knew something was amiss. I just wasn't able to get my breath effectively in the first 300. I put it down to that initial need for added oxygen when you increase your workout. But as the next one started I really, really felt myself gasping for air. No matter how hard I tried to get a decent breath I just couldn't. It was as if I had a belt being tightened on every inhaled breath.

It got to the point where I could literally hear air moving loudly through the air passages. I signalled to Chris and he asked if I was alright - all I could do was signal for my puffer. Man, can he run like the wind. I made my way out of the pool to meet him half way and quickly took my inhaler. It has been ages - I mean years since something has happened like that to me. It's really a frightening experience and has just made me realise that I need to never, ever forget my puffer EVER. One of my friends mentioned about having it with me (onboard) when I do my open water swims. Definately makes sense - which more than likely have to put it in a zip lock sandwich bag to keep it dry.

After some rest on the side of the pool I took off again but at a much slower pace - just trying to relax the airways. It's something I was always taught to do from a young age. My coach back then would make me do kick when I was having a minor attack - just so I could focus on my breathing. He would walk beside me until it settled and then I was expected to just get back into it once it was done. So I guess that mentality stuck - keep moving.

After squad was done - I was left sort of feeling a bit flat but other than that the lungs felt good - like nothing had happened. But I did realise that maybe I needed to go back on a preventer like in my younger days. The fact that I am pushing myself harder and harder everytime indicates to me that the possibility of my exercise induced asthma reering it's ugly head again is extremely high. So that's where I am off to today apart from a swim and run of course.

Yesterday, I started the Sunday off with a really nice 60km ride with 2 friends. This ride was interspersed with some tempo stuff but all in all it was quite a nice and enjoyable ride. The weather was perfect - really still apart from the loud laughs and chatter of 3 women out for a ride at 0630am. Thank goodness where we ride is fairly rural so the houses are positioned quite a ways back from the road, otherwise we would have heard some colourful language.

After getting home we decided to pop the Christmas tree up. A little late this year but better late than never. Mum decided to bring her presents over as we will be spending Christmas Day together this year - last year I think we did Christmas Eve together.

What are you guys planning on doing for Chrissy?