Running Outdoors
 

I'm starting to run outdoors after more than 6 months of running indoors. I just crank up some music and run til I feel dead.

However I'm really allergic to pollen, cut grass and other outdoorsy stuff. Is taking an allergy pill before running a good idea? Will the medication cause any sort of heart-rate increase? In addition to my allergies, I'm also fairly asthmatic, so the allergies also wrech havoc to my breathing.

Watch that the music isn't so loud that you can't hear cars and other things in your surroundings.

Some cold/allergy medications cause your blood pressure to be raised- there are some specifically made for high blood pressure -- however, if you don't have a problem, you probably don't need to worry - I'd still check with your doctor and let him/her know your intentions

The runners I know with allergies always got shots that lasted a couple months. Don't know if that would work for you though.

What kind of asthma is that? Have you had a problem with it running indoors? That would also be a worry.

Are there different kinds of asthma? I use my inhaler before I go for runs, spinning or any other kind of serious activities.

I'm trying to ween myself off the inhaler, I try to not use it when I'm running indoors but sometimes I'll just feel down and take a puff.

My allergies do cause me asthma trouble. It's not that frequent that I feel asthmatic though. I go bicycling some.

I take Claritan for my seasonal allergies. I don't use the one with a decongestant because those contribute to the blood pressure problem and I don't need them unless I have an allergy attack. The Claritan staves that off.

I have very low blood pressure so I'm not a good example of what it does for blood pressure while excercising.

I guess what I'm saying is I wouldn't worry too much if you have low blood pressure.

In any case you should keep your Dr in the loop with any excercise regimen that you choose. He will best be able to advice you as to the wisest choice of excercise and medications.

Cool, thanks for the tips everybody.

I'm sure to have more questions as the weeks go by.

In terms of types of asthmaI was thinking exercise induced vs. allergy vs. chronic.

Good luck Chemical, and be sure to have fun while your at it.