Chest Tight after Second Run This Year (Read 75 times)

Hi There,

  New to the forum here and wanted to get your opinion on this.  I'm in my late 40's and have been running consistently since I was 13.  Some years more than others.  This last winter I didn't run or do anything.  Consequently, I put on about 20lbs!  Yikes.  So, I go out for my first run last week.  I went for 5km.  Probably jogged 4km and walked 1km.  Only did a light warm up and probably pelted out a bit too fast. My legs were pretty tight for the next 4 days.

   3 more days later (yesterday), I go for my second jog of the year.  Because I was under a bit of a time crunch, I skipped any kind of stretching/warm up.  I decided instead to just start with a slow trot and open up later.  Everything was fine aside from being just slightly stiff.  I recall my slow start didn't last long, as I bring music with me .  Then, about 2km into my run, I see another runner I want to catch.  Not feeling too bad, I decided to reel him in.  To be honest, I knew I was being stupid about this, but for some reason I didn't care.  My pace was now about 2 months ahead of where it should have been, but since I wasn't cramping up in the legs much, I kept going.  About 500m into my higher pace, I picked my pace up further to close the gap.  Ok, now I'm running like I would by mid summer.  It's not that the other runner picked up his pace, I was just being impatient.  Now, my legs are beginning to get tight.  I'm about 3km into what was supposed to be a slow jog, that has turned into fast jog.  A few more hundred meters and my legs start to really cramp.  The cramping goes from my legs to my chest. Mostly the legs.  Now I'm like 'ok, you're an idiot, slow down or stop'.  So, I slow down and do a slow jog/walk for the next 1km.

 Now I do a deep breath test, because I just realized I've been shallow breathing the whole time.  I have a bad habit of doing that.  When I'm in shape, I'm pretty good on staying on top of the deep breathing, but now that I'm just starting the year out, I wasn't surprised I let it slip.  So, now as I breathed deeply, my chest feels tight.   Only tight when I breath fairly deep.  Breathing normal is ok.  I continue to jog slow while trying to do the odd deep breath while slow jogging.  Legs are a bit better, but calf is just starting a small localized cramp.  Now I stop jogging completely and walk the last 2km home.  Tightness in chest seemed to develop as I had forcibly made several deep breaths.  About an hour after my run, slight tightness in chest subsides.  Today I 'm fine.  Legs somewhat cramped and some kind of very light muscle soreness/knot in between my ribs (front chest)

 Do you think the tightness in my chest, which I only experienced when I forcibly breathed deep, was caused from a combination of shallow breathing and running way too fast after a long winter of no exercise?  Or does that sound like angina? Have any of you experienced this?  To be honest, from all the years I've been running, I don't think I ever started a post winter run as stupid as that.  I'm usually very patient and build the miles up carefully.

Thanks Dave.  Just wanted to hear it from another runner, rather than freaking myself out on google..  I normally run through the winter, but had an issue with contact dermatitis around my eyes 2 winters ago. So, I'm a little paranoid to go running in the winter now.  I think I'll just hit the pool next winter.

Been there and doing that.

I'm four weeks into a rebuilding of a running base after five months of mostly no running (I had an injured right foot and had to take a break to allow it to heal).  Now I have 25 pounds to lose.  First runs were okay and even did a 10-mile race after a couple of runs (though pretty slowly).  But what I've found its really pretty hard to run at any sort of pace for any period of time without getting out of breathe and feeling a bit of distress and tired.  No chest tightness, per se, but definitely short on breathe.  I am basically doing intervals and feel like I'm slowing down rather than getting any faster.  The more subtle signs are the fact that my heart rate is dropping with similar effort.

So, take it slow (like I must remember to do) and rebuild.

this kind of reaction your lungs did (if that was what it was) is exactly what those of us with exercise induced asthma have all the time.

Simply put, your lungs take a shock from any of a number of things and react by constricting and secreting fluids. In a nutshell, what you can do to minimize this is to warm up really well first, and even include a few strides at what will be your workout pace. All this just to introduce your lungs to the stress they are about to encounter, and in so doing, maybe they won't over-react.

There's a lot written about this online if you care to research it.

Good luck, and if it continues, you should probably see a doctor.