amkelley wrote:
Seattle Gray Hair wrote:
The wildfire smoke in Washington has made running and cycling impossible. I'm trying to keep fit with indoor core workouts, but really hoping we get some relief in air quality later this week. At the moment, it doesn't look like that will happen until Friday.
Apparently it's even worse in the Pacific Northwest than here in California. Today our AQI dropped below 200 for the first time in three days, and I went out for an easy run. The AQI is still above the level where high school teams are forbidden to practice, but I figured I'd better get in a run while I can because it may not be this good again for a while.
In Seattle you should get some rain soon, which will clean up the air. In California it may not rain until November, or maybe December.
Some good links on excercising outdoors in this fire smoke.
About month ago when we here in Denver were hit by our local fires there's no way I could run in it let lone even walk. Most days for a week or two we were in the "unhealthy" or "unhealthy for sensitive groups" category. Granted, I am old and have EIA - so that's a double hit for me. Not being the brightest candle on the cake though, I foolishly tried to run on a couple of those days. I paid the price with a sore throat, congested nasal passageways & respiratory distress. I live 5 minutes away from my gym which has a nice spin bikes, ellipticals, treadmills, etc. and I stupidly ran in toxic air when I know better.
No more - it's indoors from now on no matter what. And unfortunately we're now getting some residual effects from the West coast fires. ? I 've never seen anything like this with all these fires. I can't imagine how many people are going to develop lung conditions from all the exposure.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/abc7news.com/amp/bay-area-orange-sky-ash-in-the-air-when-will-get-better-nws/6422938/https://theknow.denverpost.com/2020/08/15/safe-exercise-wildfire-smoke-colorado/243670/"If you’re healthy but the hazy air over the Front Range coming from Colorado wildfires has made your throat scratchy after going a run or a bike ride, should you be concerned?"
"We posed that question and others to Dr. Anthony Gerber, a pulmonologist at National Jewish Health."
“In people who are otherwise healthy, we don’t think that those symptoms translate to significant long-term health consequences,” Gerber said. “In people who do have pre-existing lung disease, or are older, or very young, we’re more concerned. To some extent, this is based on the level of the air pollution."
“Right now, we have moderately unhealthy air,” Gerber said on Friday afternoon. “For the kind of air quality we’re having now, where you can smell it in the air and your visibility is down to a few miles, we encourage the sensitive groups to not exercise outside. Those are people with asthma, other forms of lung disease, the elderly, the very young and pregnant women.”
"So why, you might wonder, does your throat feel scratchy?"