Yes, I Can Breathe Again! – AZ Winter, part 3
Even though the Tucson Bicycle Classic went all wrong, I am happy today. Friday’s 3 mile TT was supposed to be my chance to finally do good in the “race against the clock.” “I’m a sprinter and a decent 5K runner so this is my race.” Yeah, fuggedaboutit. Low power + too much coughing = UGH.
Saturday’s 80 mile road race wasn’t much better. After hitting a bump in the early miles, my seat (loose from Friday’s TT) slipped and pointed to the sky. As in: I couldn’t even sit on it. I managed to slam it down to what I thought was a tolerable angle, then got a 5mm allen key from the wheel van and tightened it on the fly. And 20 miles later… knee pain and leg cramps. WTF! I considered abandoning but opted to jump off, adjust and chase back on. With a little (lotta’) help from the wheel van, I caught on but missed an attack which split the field. Oh well, it was still a great workout: 82 miles @ 25mph. But the coughing worsened, especially that night.
On Sunday morning, after 30 minutes of debating to race or not, I finally jumped outta’ bed and decided to give it a go. 
Well, the debate lasted longer than the race; I dropped out about 2 miles into it. Rode home, googled a few things and called my doctor buddy. Wouldn’t you know, Tucson was #2 on the list of the USA’s 5 worst cities for allergies. It was my asthma. Two hours later, I was at Walgreens’s getting a prescription filled.
By Monday afternoon, the wheezing and coughing were nearly gone. Since Sunday was a wash, I opted to do my weekly run that evening. Ran 14.5 miles and – despite a sore left calf – was able to throw down 6-min splits again. (last week, I struggled running one sub-7 mile)
Yesterday I climbed Mt. Lemmon again and felt pretty darn good. Finally, I can breathe again!