Allergy Control And Breaking Out Of A Rut

For those of you out there who battle seasonal allergies, I can actually say that I feel your pain. Midway through last summer, after a race, I started to experience seasonal allergy symptoms. To that point in my life, I really hadn't run into any issues with allergies and so it took me awhile to understand what was going on. A trip to the doctor resulted in a diagnosis of a sinus infection with a suggestion to take a daily allergy over the counter pill and to use a decongestant as needed. It was late enough in the year that fall soon came and with the cooler weather my symptoms subsided. 

Fast forward to this year and a late spring had me cruising along with no issues. However, as soon as the weather started to warm up my symptoms returned with a vengeance. I started taking my daily allergy pill once again and that kept the sneezing and itchy eyes in check, but the congestion got worse and worse. On top of that, anytime that I swam in open water (including for my races) my sinuses would close completely for a couple of days making it unbearable. For the past 8 weeks I have tried switching medications, popping congestion meds like candy, using nasal irrigation all with little long term success. Exercise and irrigation would provide temporary relief but I just could not shake the constant congestion. With that came loss of sleep, irritability and a drain in energy (not good for a triathlete in training). 

After conversing with family, friends, and co-workers, I was nearly at the point of going to see an allergist and ENT (I'm sure many of you are questioning why I didn't do that before) but within the last week, I have finally found what seems to be working for me. After 4 straight days of relief, I feel comfortable stating that it appears that Allegra-D combined with Nasacort is the right combination for me. With my nasal passages finally clear, I have gotten a couple nights good sleep and the irritability has subsided. In addition, today I had my best day of training since April. A 1,400 yard pool workout this morning resulted in my fastest splits since mid-winter and an average pace of 2:18/100 yards. I followed that up with a 12 mile/3 mile brick workout this evening where I averaged 20.3 mph on the bike followed by 10:08 min/mi on the 3 mile run. My breathing did not hold me back at all and it felt good to push myself again. 

I have less than 3 weeks to go until I have 2 sprint triathlons on back to back days, and even though it was only 1 good day of workouts, it helped me to recover a little of the confidence that I have lost this spring/summer. Hopefully today was a preview of what is to come for me the remainder of the summer. Either way, I'm glad to be back to breathing easier.