When I run, my throat feels like it is closing in...has this happened to you?!?!?

Question

Ever since my first cross country race people have been telling me that I breathe hard when I run.

Today, in track I ran some relays (about 200m) and when I was finished I was inhaling and exhaling like crazy...and I couldn't stop until about 4-5 minutes after.

Would any of these cause this:

-When I run I look down

-asthma (I don't have asthma, but can you get it when you grow older?)

Please HELP!!!!

Answer 1

Okay, this happened to me before. It means that you had not been working out over the summer. You need to work your heart and lungs until they match the pace of your legs and your oxygen needs. So, practice every day, go until it ALMOST really hurts, and then take a rest. That way, if you push it a little bit at a time, you should decrease the amount of its occurence.

Answer 2

You are outrunning your cardiac capacity, and your lungs are doing all they can to get oxygen circulating.

You can't just run all out like that.  You have to build cardiac capacity.

What you need to do is run on odd days and do strength on even days.  When you run, rotate each session (that is, different days) through 'intervals' (running all out), "long-slow-distance", and "tempo" runs (running at a good pace but not all out).  That means you're doing tough "intervals" like above only 1x a week.

Over time you will build capacity.

If your coach won't let you follow the routine I mention then (s)he sucks as a coach and is putting you in a dangerous health situation.