I often joke that all pro cyclist have asthma, or at least they have prescriptions to treat it!!

This being said, I also get inflamed and over-produce phlegm of all sorts when I work out hard (or just midly hard if it's cold). I am, generally, a spitter, to say things bluntly. My speedwork and hill sessions on the run are particularly... hum, productive. Yesterday at the end of my 10th repeat of a 250 meters steep hill, which I had raced with a friend, I had a mighty coughing fit, I thought I would puke. Considering the data showing on my heart rate monitor, I had probably looked for it!!

The good news is that it gets better with training. Or maybe you just get used to it. I was prescribed asthma drugs in the past (corticosteroids), before I started doing endurance sports seriously, and I think it did reduce the problem after taking them daily for weeks. But I dropped all that years ago. There are way too many people who supposedly have EIA out there that I refuse to see it as a condition or a disease anymore. It's a lucrative market though. Since it's not threatening to my health and only slightly compromising my "performance", I prefer to see it as a variation of the normal.