Update:
Race plans are uncertain for the time being. Though I’m doing a little better than a few days ago, I’m apparently not out of the danger zone, as evidenced by the following:
This morning I was feeling pretty good and thought I would test the waters by doing a short walk. I walked about 2 miles , when all of a sudden I went into severe bronchospasm ( my lungs clamped up really tight). When I finally made it home my peak flow was only 150! The inhalers and nebs didn’t help, so I had to use the Epi-pen. I don’t like using epinephrine because it makes your heart pound really hard and fast, but sometimes it’s the only thing that can open up my airways. Luckily it did the trick and I avoided a possible to trip to jail.
Lesson learned: It’s way too soon to start walking again!
Besides the physical limitations, I’m an emotional Zombie from lack of sleep,and my mood swings are driving everyone crazy. I’m up at 3am futzing around the house and analyzing my stock portfolio—just your typical steroid behavior I guess.
I’m currently on 40 mgs of prednisone, and my doctors want me to wean down at a rate of 10 mg per week. At that slow pace, I won’t be totally off the drug until AFTER my next scheduled race , which is on July 29th. This is not a good thing, because as we all know, even low doses of prednisone can cause horrible leg cramps (I learned that lesson in Portland).
Assuming that my breathing continues to gradually improve, and I manage to somehow wean off the evil candy a little faster, at best, I’ll have 2 weeks to prepare for this race–not exactly the best training plan!
Then again, I’m not your typical lunger, so I think it’s doable, but I don’t expect to PR . That’s OK , this half marathon was only supposed to be a prep walk for Portland , which is what I really have my eyes on.
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