I always have trouble breathing through my nose when I am running because no matter which precautions I take, as soon as I get out among the trees and the grass, hayfever makes me all bunged up. Consequently, I often find myself gulping air through my mouth, which I'm sure is not terribly efficient! I know from working out that it is best to breathe in through the nose, and out through the mouth but having a nose which feels as though it's full of cotton wool makes it a tad problematic.
Hayfever (grass pollen) plushie from GiantMicrobes.com
Berry, my running mentor, mentioned that champion marathon runner, Paula Radcliffe uses Breathe-Right nasal strips, so I thought I'd give them a go. Wow, what a difference! As soon as I applied the first one I could actually breathe through my nose - it was amazing!
Do they help with the running? A little. To be honest though, because I've been ill recently, my fitness levels have dropped, and my chest is still very wheezy; however, the strips do help, and I am hopeful that once I am back to normal I'll start to feel a big difference.
The downside to them is that they heighten my hyperosmia (super-powered-olfactory sense)! Despite this being a condition associated with migraine sufferers, apart from a couple of acquaintances who are perfumiers, I have the most overdeveloped sense of smell of everyone I know (I have excellent hearing too). Sometimes this is a good thing - it certainly helps with my culinary adventures - but it's not so good when I can smell all the bad things humans and animals leave behind!
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