Discussion: Asthma management

I have allergy and exercise induced asthma. I'm taking daily singulair and I was using an albuterol inhaler 2x before working out. That was working fine last year. But now, once I reach AT, my HR spikes and I feel like my lungs are full of water. I pretty much have to stop to recover. I wonder if part of it may have to do with the new HFA inhalers (instead of the old CFC ones) not working as well. I need about 5 puffs on the inhaler to ward of a flare-up during AT work.

Anyone have similar experience? Suggestions for management?

You may not find my reply helpful, but its a discussion, right? I believe all the training we do also applies to overcoming injury or disease - to a non-fanatical point anyway. If my lungs hurt, or i have trouble breathing, and this happens often enough, I rest, as with any training after the body is stressed, relax and clear my mind, and then... re-double my efforts! In other words, I'm training my lungs to breath better, just as in training any other part of the body. If you medicate on demand, you are potentially blocking the response of your body to strengthen and heal itself. My thought (and I realize its just one wild guess) is if you have to medicate, do so sparingly to help your body over the hump, not to block it out.

The other day, my calf muscle was strained. Instead of just not running for weeks, I took a day or two off, w/ massage, then ran on it, specifically to stimulate recovery. If the body thinks you need this part to function, its going to do its darndest to heal it. Again, I realize this was a judgement call on my part and there are many more severe injuries i would not want to try this on, but I guess you can see my point.

I admit - I could be so full of prunes, could be like telling somone in a wheelchair to 'just go ahead and run'

Exercise induced asthma is not an injury, it is a condition where it is thought the high air flow during exercise, especially with reduced nose breathing, dries the airways which in turn leads to an inflammatory response and airway constriction. Stopping and resting will not cure the condition as it will return when you return to training, and it may be that at the higher levels of exercise you find it most problematic as that is when your airflow is highest.
I live in the UK so our medications are called different things, but I work as a doctor for the Army. I would recommend considering using a long acting inhaler e.g. salmeterol and possibly a steroid inhaler (beclometasone) twice a day to reduce your airway inflammation long term. You will need to discuss this with your doctor I guess, but there are other options out there for you.
Also, generally asthmatics find the second sesion of the day easier due to changes in the airways, and therefore a short 20 min or less run in the morning can set you up for a better session at lunchtime or evening. Worth a try!

Thanks srollins for the information on meds--I'll be seeing a sports med doc next week to do some testing to get a better idea of exactly what's going on. Interesting info about the second session of the day. Will certainly give that a shot. Much appreciated.

Rudy,not sure about your theories in general...but you do make a good point about training the lungs. I know there are breathing exercises that reduce asthma symptoms and yoga breathing techniques to strengthen the lungs and actually increase lung capacity. Looking into that side of things too.