Epiphanies on The Run - Breathing Tips for Improved Oxygen Saturation

Greetings my dear Steemians!
I hope you like my photographic display above. I took that yesterday after some very fresh, powdery snow had fallen. That's a tile on the outside of one of my mulch beds. The snow arranged itself nicely around it. 😊

As some of you may recall, I am currently in training for a half marathon. I have not done one since 2015 but have maintained fitness. I have a long history of running & actually did my first full marathon a month before my 18th birthday and I am now almost 30. 😮 My oh my, how the time does fly.

I plan to find a half marathon to do in my local area in the late winter to early spring. I have lived here two years and still getting familiarized with the area. Amazing how long that can take. As someone who moved a lot as a child (military brat), I feel I should be really good at getting to know a new area but it's definitely different as an adult. Haha!

Traditionally, Saturdays have always been my long run day due to typically having the following day off work lends itself well to recovery. Hence, today was my long run day of 8 miles this week. I did six last week, which wasn't that challenging as I was accustomed to doing five.

I got a late start today because I had insomnia last night and was up past 3am. Ugh. Not to be deterred! I still ran. I was initially concerned that the weather might be really cold. However, it didn't start out that way....Yesterday's snow had melted and it was 45 balmy degrees out when I got started with my run around 420pm.

I ran the 8 miles at 9min 41sec/mile pace overall. Which is sixteen seconds/mile slower than last week. Some of that could be attributed to poor quality of rest the night prior. However, getting started that late in the day in the winter, I failed to remember that it starts getting dark around 5pm and hence, colder. It was a balmy 45*F when I started, and six degrees cooler upon finishing. It felt colder than 6 degrees though.

Another factor is I have asthma that acts up only occasionally. Today, I had asthmatic wheezing starting at mile two that subsided around five & a half miles. I attribute my slower pace to primarily that.

Today's 8 miles felt more difficult than last week's six. Clearly the extra two miles had something to do with it, but it was warmer last week and I ran in the late morning with no temperature drop.

It is amazing all the little things that can negatively or positively effect a run. Temperature is definitely one of them & especially if you're asthmatic.

The funny thing is, I started running when I was 15 to help my asthma. Which it did! I did so on the advice of my doctor at the time. He was right. I went from consistent asthma medication use to only seasonal use if that. I've always noticed that cooler climates have usually effected my asthma if intensely exercising versus a warmer environment. It has gotten less severe with age & breathing technique experience.

One thing that helps me is really focusing on a more forceful exhale during an asthma exasperation. This is useful from a medical perspective because it is human nature if we are having trouble breathing to work harder on inhalation when in fact the opposite should be emphasized. This is to help the lungs empty their residual volume which is residual CO2, the idea being that will expand your overall lung volume allowing increased O2 saturation.

I can't remember exactly but I think non- diseased lungs have a residual volume of less than 10%. Ten percent is still a lot in my opinion, so anything over that with someone that has constricted and/or clogged bronchioles just is that much less oxygen your lungs can deliver to the rest of the body and that can certainly impact running/exercise performance!

I worked on more forceful exhalation and I was able to clear my asthma up today non- medicinally which was good because asthma inhalers have uncool side effects.

So there's that. I really enjoy analyzing exercise performance if you have not noticed. That's why I chose my profession in physical therapy. 😎Here's some take away points you can use:

1. If you exercise late in the day in the winter, remember the temp is gonna decrease!
2. If you have a lung condition and experience an issue with breathing a more forceful exhalation can be helpful to rid your air of CO2 that you don't need!

Thanks for visiting my blog. I hope this wasn't too boring. I would be happy to answer any questions or address any comments. I always welcome my readers to engage! Have a good one my Steemians.



(Thx to @inthenow for ECS logo!)