It all makes sense now. Two weeks ago, I couldn't tell why my heart rate jumped 20bpm at USATF-NE race. I also couldn't figure out why I had such a terrible race at the 2008 DII XC nationals. Now I think I'm finally got the answer: Cold Induced Asthma. For those of you that don't know, before coming to the US (1999) I had severe asthma problems caused by allergies from Sahara's dust and sand traveling from Africa to the islands. I was born with asthma and had been hospitalized on several occasions. It was not uncommon for me to randomly pass out due to asthma attacks. As I grew older (from 5 to 12 years), I was able to control it better. However, I would still get extremely tired and out of breath by just playing around outside on the streets. After I came to the US, being away from the dust, I was able to get my asthma under control. However, I noticed in the winter, I would get sick much more often. I was talking today to Barbara (Throws coach at UML) and she said her daughter has the same problem. Whenever she runs in the cold, her asthma problems come up, restricting air flow and driving up the heart rate - exactly what has been happening to me. New Englands was cold and Nationals in 2008 was even colder (20's). I guess my next step is to find out ways of decreasing/eliminating this from happening in the future. Maybe wear more clothes, use more vaseline etc. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
I was doing some reading from some various websites, but most of them suggest that you avoid running outside in cold whether. Being a distance runner avoiding that isn't the best option. I did read one thing, however, that you could wrap like a scarf or wear a mask so that you are breathing warm air all the time as opposed to cold air. In races, I bet a mask or scarf is illegal, but it could be helpful when doing training runs.
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