Breathing

Today it's raining again and for some reason the rain makes me think of writing on this blog. This week training has been going pretty well and I have not had any real issues with my breathing. Over the past few weeks I have had several doctors appointments and tests to see if I have asthma (which my doctor unofficially diagnosed about a year and a bit ago), how bad it is and if it is effected by exercise. The answers so far are yes I have asthma and yes it is effected quite a bit by exercise. Having these official test results will be very important going into Beijing because they verify that I do have breathing issues and I need to be taking my inhalers. I am a little worried about the air quality in China and how it will affect my performance so I am going to take all the precautions I can such as having my puffers on me at all times and taking them whenever I feel the need and before my races, having a small air purifier for my bedroom, wearing a personal air purifier around my neck and I am even considering wearing a mask. It may seem like overkill but if I want to swim fast in China I need to be proactive regarding the air quality and my ability to breath.