Helpful asthma hints?

[retread]

I have exercise induced asthma, ferocious allergies which have transcended to the food group as well. I react to my allergies shots for heavens sake. I do albuterol and sometimes a powdered inhaler. I have my good times and bad with my cycling. I do a tough ride on Sats "the old man's shoot-out" here in Tucson and sometimes especially winter I simply have to let off -or die. Most of the time I can hang until right before the bridge as the ascent increases and strains my lungs to the max. It is uphill that puts such a high demand on our bodies for blood and oxygen.The men I ride with understand I have a problem and wait for me,hard to ignore this locamotive coming down the line.I have been doing Mt. Lemmon 2x's a week with a long warm-up and then into intervals, sometimes I try to go farther, I feel like this has helped.I do El Tour de Tucson but my warm-up is hampered by having to stand still too long for the start after my warm-up. Last year when they said go, its a sprint start, I was struggling with drowning in mucus, couldn't get air,debated pulling over and calling a paramedic,kept pedaling once out of the pac cleared all the clutter in my lungs and kept going, catching onto pacs as they passed. I eventually caught back to my son, then my husband who had blown up several miles down the road(did that feel good or what) I fell off once again at Rattlesnake pass,due to the climb,but once again clawed my way back on the other side. I was shocked to see that I had won the female portion of the mileage distance we signed up for(not the full race of 100 miles!). I am 60 years old so I just keep plugging along. For me warm-up is the key to racing and as far as hills go, I have small improvements and sometimes I am not last!

[lo123]

I react to my allergies shots for heavens sake.

OMG - so glad to know I'm not the only one! I quit taking them because the reactions got so bad.


I've found that if I 'tough it out' for climbs I do better if I keep riding. If I stop after getting totally worked up, it's like my body freaks out. So that may be something to keep in mind for others. Just don't push too far-it's a fine line