Perhaps I was feeling overconfident (I'm human after all), and as I was completing the final minute of that first cycle I decided to sprint fast as I could.  My chest became itchy and started to burn like it used to when I was a hardluck asthmatic and an attack was imminent. 

I turned to my son and told him my symptoms.

"You better quit," he said.

"I'm not going to use this as an excuse," I said.

"Good thing I know CPR," he said, smiling.

"Nope," I said, "I'm not a quitter." But I'm smart enough to know I needed to rest, I thought. 

After sprinting for that long miserable minute, it was time to walk slow for a minute.  To allow myself time to catch my breath, I allowed myself a two minute walk instead of one.

Miraculously, the chest discomfort let up and my breathing was fine the rest of the way (something that never would have happened a few years back).

Since then I've continued to do this interval training.  I still have to pace myself of course, but now I find I can do the entire workout without my asthma even showing its ugly face. 

This brings us to a good asthma rule.  I'll call it asthma rule #1:  You see, it's all about pacing yourself. Even us asthmatics can run like the best of them, all we have to do is pace ourselves, and make sure we take our preventative medicines as prescribed, which you and I do.

However, it's also important to know our early warning signs, because that's exactly what that burning, itchy chest feeling was. It was telling me I had to slow down and pace myself. It was telling me if I kept sprinting as hard as I was I would have an even worse asthma attack.

So I rested. The attack subsided enough for me to finish the work out.  I never sprinted again, but I still did finished the workout. Whenever I accomplish a feat like this I can't help but feel an aura of accomplishment.  I'm a gallant asthmatic, and I can run.  I can imagine Breathin' Stephen felt something like this as he crossed the finish line at the Boston Marathon.

I confess, as soon as I got home I took two puffs of my rescue inhaler (with a space of course), and then my son grabbed me by the arm and said, "Come on dad, we need to go to the basement to do our sit-ups and push-ups." 

I highly recommend all asthmatics, no matter how bad your asthma is, that you exercise. It not only makes you feel better, it makes your lungs and heart stronger. And, as you pace yourself, perhaps some day you can step it up a notch as I just did.