PODCAST - How I pack for trail running with asthma
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[00:00:00] So you've decided that it is time to overcome your perceived limitations and become a serious trail runner. Or maybe you're trying out trail running for the first time, or maybe you're bored of running on roads and you're wondering what you should be bringing with you when you're trail running.
Well, today on the show I'm gonna share ~with you ~how I pack for trail running with. Asthma ~now. I've had asthma since birth, and when I was four years old, you may already know now. ~I've had asthma since birth, and when I was four years old, I was told by multiple doctors that I should not play soccer and I should never become a runner.
Fast forward 30 years later, and I am an elite ultra runner who runs trails six days a week, and I actually live right on one of my favorite trails.
Welcome to the Athlete with Asthma Show. I'm your host Johnny Ha, an ultra runner endurance athlete, and yes, a [00:01:00] guy who's had an inhaler prescribed since birth. Despite doctors telling me I could never play soccer nor run a marathon, let alone a hundred K ultra. I prove them all wrong. This show is where I share everything I've learned from breathing techniques to mindset shifts to help you become the athlete and the person you truly want to be.
So if you're ready to achieve your goals, despite limitations, let's get started.
So let's go through what I bring with me during my trail runs. ~Now I.~
Now I have asthma. I also have different food allergies, and sometimes my allergies can even surface depending on how my diet's been, how I felt, and all these different [00:02:00] environmental factors when ~I'm ~running. So the first thing ~that ~I always bring ~with me ~is my inhaler and Benadryl. 'cause you never know.
When you may need it. And remember, even though on this show and on my YouTube channel, I am a big proponent of training your lungs, strengthening your lungs to overcome your limitations that asthma can create. I also. Believe that your inhaler and having what you need to support yourself to support your system and keep yourself safe is the most important thing.
So no matter if you. Take your inhaler every single day, or if you're like me, where you only use your inhaler as a last resort. And for me, I really only use my inhaler when I'm sick, and even then I try not to use it unless I really need it. The first thing you need to bring ~with you is ~[00:03:00] your inhaler and anything else that your healthcare professional your doctor has prescribed so you can stay safe.
For me, it's my inhaler and Benadryl. I have a disclaimer in the description below this video on YouTube. And if you're listening to this as a podcast, I have a disclaimer in the show notes. I'm not a healthcare professional, so definitely you need to talk to your healthcare professional and see what they say you need to have with you when you're running, when you're doing anything.
So the second thing is shoes. ~Okay. ~Now, depending on your experience as a runner, and depending on what shoe stores you've gone to and what you've heard from people, you may have very, very interesting views on shoes, and it's because everyone has their own opinion.~ Okay. Everyone has their own opinion.~
I've read ~the book, born to Run. I've read a bunch of different books, but in ~Born to Run, ~it talks all about, ~and I highly recommend that you pick up the book and listen to it. Just like you're listening to this podcast. While you're running, ~you can listen to the audio book, born To Run and In ~Born To Run, it talks about how [00:04:00] our feet need very little support to support us when we're running.
~Okay, now ~every body is different, so what works for me may not work for you. ~But I'll tell you this. ~When I first started running, I invested in the most expensive shoes. I got the really thick shoes. And,~ uh, ~the shoe store said, Hey, it's gonna take a little while for these to break in. It may hurt for a few runs, ~all right.~
~And I, I bought into it. You know now ~one or two runs later, my feet were in excruciating pain, just half a mile to a mile into the run. So I'm like this, there's something wrong here, and I brought those shoes back and ~I ~got a different pair ~of shoes and I went with that, and ~I ran with those shoes for a year or two.
~Okay, well ~today I run with two different. Types of shoes. ~Okay, now ~we're talking about trail running today. So my favorite trail running shoes that work for my feet, 'cause I have a wide foot. And these shoes have a wide toe box and the cushion is very minimalistic. ~Okay? So instead of having like this much cushion we're talking about like this much cushion.~
~And I do that because ~it makes it easier for my feet [00:05:00] to feel the earth with less pressure. ~Okay. ~Now when you're trail running, you also have to notice that the ground ~that you're running on ~is ~a lot ~softer than running on a track, than running on concrete. Than running on asphalt, than running on a treadmill.
So a misconception with trail running is that it's actually harder on the body. It is actually easier on the body when it comes to your feet, when it comes to the impact that your body takes, because when you are running on sidewalk, when you're running on asphalt, you are running on a hard surface that doesn't have any give.
~Okay? ~And even then, I still highly recommend that you check out how different shoes feel in your body because the more cushion doesn't necessarily help. ~So what happens is ~if you have an inch or more of cushion or just the more cushion you have on your shoes, the harder your feet have to press to feel the earth, to send the neuro [00:06:00] signals throughout your body that you are actually running and that you need to take another step.
~Okay? So ~when you take it to very minimalistic, much less. A cushion. ~Okay. And ~this is talked about in ~the book, ~born to Run too. Your body doesn't have to push as hard. It's easier for your toes, for your feet to feel the earth. Okay? So I barefoot running is a thing. ~Okay? ~Now I don't barefoot run. ~I think ~I could probably do it if I put a lot of time into it and I calloused my feet ~and all these different things, ~but.
The shoes that I wear are called the Topo Athletic ~Mountain Racer threes. Okay. The ~Mountain racer threes. This is what I use for trail running. ~Okay. ~Now sometimes I will wear my Topo, athletic FLYlights. ~Okay. So we got our FLYlights. If I spelled that wrong, my bad. ~And right now they're on the five. And I have links to the shoes that I use in the YouTube description and the show notes of this podcast episode.
But I use these 'cause they have wide toe [00:07:00] boxes. They're very comfortable on my feet. And the misconception that. You have to run your shoes for a while to break in. It doesn't apply here. ~Okay.~ I am a strong believer that if you have a shoe that actually is meant for your foot, that it's not gonna take any time to break in.
~And I have proof, ~I have personal proof. When I ran my a hundred K Ultra ~last September, okay,~ September, 2024, I had two pairs of FLYlights, ~okay? So ~I always buy shoes, two pairs at a time, and I wasn't keeping track of the wear very well.~ Okay. I like these shoes. ~I did most of my training in these shoes, and while they're not trail shoes, the trail I was running on wasn't a trail that needed that much grip.
~Okay? So I was training in these, ~well, three days before the race, you know, I started getting nervous and all this stuff, and I looked at the shoes and both pairs had holes in them. So I started freaking out. I'm like, okay, well I need to go buy new shoes and break them in in three days. ~Okay. ~And that's what I did.
I went to the store, I bought [00:08:00] another pair of FLYlights and I asked them, I'm like, Hey, do you have a trail shoe, like the FLYlights that I can check out? And they're like, yeah, we have the mountain racers. So I grabbed the mount erasers, put 'em on, and I'm like, you know what? I'm just gonna try. ~Okay.~ So I took a run that afternoon.
~Okay.~ No issues, no pain. My feet felt amazing. I never worn these shoes before in my life. I never worn the model shoe before. I've never worn these shoes before. They're brand new, ~okay?~ So I decided, hey, I'm gonna bring both of these pairs and I'm gonna bring one of my old holy pairs to my race just in case.
I'm really wrong with this, and I need one that I haven't worn just for five, 10 miles. Well, I ran my entire a hundred K Ultra in the mountain racers, and they had five to 10 miles on them. Of breaking in.~ Okay. ~And I won the race. ~Okay? So I won the race with brand new shoes I had never worn before. ~So when people tell you, oh yeah, your feet are gonna hurt for a couple days, ~I, ~based on this experience, I think that is bs.
~And I think that ~if you have found a shoe ~that's ~meant for your foot, it shouldn't take ~any ~time to break [00:09:00] in. ~Okay? ~
Hey, friend, I wanted to take a moment to ask you a quick question. Are you struggling to lose weight due to your asthma? If so, I get it. I used to run marathons and still kept gaining weight. It wasn't until I learned about the three pillars of healthy living that everything changed,
so I put together a healthy living guide that you can access absolutely free by clicking the link in the description. This guide shares these amazing three pillars of healthy living that you can easily integrate into your life to start losing weight and live [00:10:00] healthier today. Click the link in the description or go to.
Athlete with asthma.com/healthy-living-guide to grab your free copy. Now let's get back to the rest of the show.
Number three. Clothes. ~Okay, so we talked about shoes. Now I'm breaking up shoes and clothes, because shoes as a runner is the most important thing that you have. Sh Uh, because shoes as a runner is the most important tool you have.~
~If you are a runner with asthma like me, then the only thing more important is making sure you have your inhaler and your Benadryl. If you're a, if you're a runner with asthma like me, then the only thing more important is having your inhaler or whatever. You need to manage yourself and keep yourself alive and protect yourself when you're running.~
~Okay, close. ~I typically, no matter what time of year it is, there's two things I always wear. ~Okay?~ I wear my hoodie, so I literally wear what I'm wearing right now. If you're watching this on YouTube, I wear a hoodie, specifically buy all my clothes from vui. I love Vori. As you may know, I am a yoga teacher, and back in 2018,~ I discovered Vori through a good friend of mine who's my personal trainer At the time, I actually thought I had bought Lululemon, so I bought a pair of shorts and I bought 'em at CorePower Yoga, which I have taught at in the past.~
~And, uh, 'cause ~I needed a pair of shorts 'cause I forgot shorts. And I went to yoga and I forgot shorts. I'm like, you know what, I'm just gonna buy a pair of shorts. I'm [00:11:00] like, so I thought I bought Lululemon. I bought 'em, wore 'em for a while. Then I was taking a run with my friend about a month or two later, and he is like, Hey, you know Vori?
And I'm like, I don't know what the heck you're talking about, man. I don't know what Vori is. He's like, you're shorts, that's what you're wearing. And I looked at the logo and I'm like, oh, that isn't Lululemon. That's vori. Well, anyway, he got me hooked on Vori and it is the best brand ever. I absolutely love it.
I wear it all the time. I'm wearing it right now. I run in it. I run in ~the hoodies, ~the Ponto performance hoodies or the Ponto hoodie, and ~then ~the trail shorts. Now, depending on when you're watching this, they may not ~actually ~have these exact products available, but I love 'em. ~So my trail shorts and hoodie now, depending on the time of year.~
If it's cold outside, you'll also find me in the ponto pants. ~Ponto, and we'll put Ponto here. Hoodie. Call it a Ponto hoodie. Ponto Pants. ~Now I am a influencer for re, so I do promote them. I have a link in the description below this video and in the show notes as well. I just love how these feel. They're high quality and ~they just,~ I race in these, I run in these, I train [00:12:00] in these.
I love how they breathe, how they keep me warm, when I need, how I sweat a lot. They absorb what I need, make me feel good while ~I'm ~running. So that's what I wear is the trail shorts, the hoodie, and then the ponto pants if it's colder. ~Okay? Now some other things I wear when it's colder, and I talked about this on other episodes of the podcast, is how to Run in war.~
~And I talk about this in other episodes on the podcast about cold weather running and. I talk about this on my YouTube channel as well. I, ~when it's really cold outside, I also make sure that I am wearing gloves for me. My hands tend to get really cold. My feet can too. So I'll wear like wool, socks and gloves, but I wear gloves even now.
It's spring right now when I'm recording this, and I wear gloves ~right now. ~Because ~I know that ~if my hands get cold, everything else is gonna get cold. So I like to keep my hands warm. ~Okay.~ And then I wear Under Armour, ~okay? ~I have links to all this in the show notes and ~in the ~description below the video.
~So that's the clothes I bring with me. Okay? Now, ~next thing is nutrition. . Now I talk about nutrition even deeper. If you're looking for nutrition tips for long runs, I have podcast episode and a video linked in the YouTube description below.
[00:13:00] If you're watching this on YouTube, ~all about that, ~or you could just search on the podcast for top long run nutrition tips. But overall, for nutrition, let's ~just ~say I'm ~just ~taking any kind of run. ~Okay. It ~could be a two mile run, could be a 20 mile run. What do I have with me? ~What do I pack for my trail running?~
~Well, first I always make sure that I have my first. I always make sure that I have some sort of, okay.~
First, I always make sure that I have some sort of electrolytes and some sort of carbs with me. ~Okay, so we're looking at electrolytes~
~and carbs. Now, I'll do this in different ways, ~and if I'm taking a longer run, I'll usually throw all this in a camelback. So I'll take a camelback with me, a one and a half, 1.5 to two liter ~camelback. And then what I do is ~I like to use Liquid IV for my electrolytes liquid iv. And then I'll also just do some pink Himalayan salt.
~Okay, now~ I do this because last year to my a hundred K Ultra, I was putting Liquid IV in every single camelback. My team was. And I still at mile 37 cramped up really bad in my hamstring. So now when I'm doing longer runs, I [00:14:00] always make sure that I have pink salt with me and I'll actually put it in my camelback on top of the liquid IV to prevent that type of cramping.
The thing that was a game changer for me, because I used to eat all my carbs, is something called the Scratch Labs Super. High carb powder. I put this in my pack whenever I'm doing a long run now. ~Okay.~ I get three to 500 calories of carbs in my camelback, my one to two liter, and I put. A couple liquid IVs in there.
I put some pink salt in there. If I'm doing a longer run, like 25, 30 miles is really when I put the pink salt in there. You can put it earlier. You gotta really be in tune with your body, keep things going so you feel good. But this has been a game [00:15:00] changer for me. Because especially the longer you run it, it can get exhausting, like be eating all the time.
~Okay? So ~I highly recommend you check this out. I have it linked in the description ~below this video ~and in the show notes for the podcast. I also have the liquid IV and the pink salt there too, and the exact camelback that I use. ~Okay? Now some other stuff is~ I do like to eat things still. So I ~will bring like a tortilla wrap.~
~Okay. So I'll ~bring something solid. ~Okay. Solid food. ~Usually a wrap of some sort. So like a tortilla wrap. ~Just some sort of solid food that is a carb I bring with me. Okay.~
Now what about electronics tracking gear? ~Okay. Well for me, ~number five, electronics. I definitely bring my phone. No, I bring my phone for multiple reasons. ~Okay. Bring my phone. ~'cause I do like to listen to music podcasts. Like this one you. I like to listen to YouTube videos. If I can't find a podcast on, I like to listen to audio books, so I always bring my phone ~because of that.~
~Okay. ~I have a. Whole podcast episode and video on my YouTube channel about why I always run with music and why you should too. ~I know people, some people have a strong view on if you're running with music, it's not real running well. I actually have some really amazing reasons why you should, especially if it.~
Well, I have some, uh, really amazing reasons why you should, especially if you have asthma, so I highly [00:16:00] recommend you checking out that episode. So I bring my phone also because my phone acts as my tracking device so people can easily find me.
I share my location with my significant other, with my family, with any friends that I want them to know where I am just in case something happens. Maybe I have an asthma attack and they can find me. ~Okay.~ Maybe my watch dies 'cause I also run with an Apple watch. ~Okay,~ so some sort of watch tracker. Maybe my watch dies, and this is the only way that people can track me down,~ so that's why I run with this.~
I ~also ~bring two types of headphones. ~Usually with me, ~I'll bring a Bluetooth and ~I'll bring ~a wired pair, especially for long runs. ~So this is headphones, ~because you never know when your Bluetooth headphones are gonna die, and ~you may not. Have time to, I mean, your, ~your case may die too, so you can't charge 'em, so I always have wired headphones.
You never know when some music is going to take you out of a really dark place or help you with your breath, ~right?~ I use music, the beat of music, to help me [00:17:00] with my breath, to calm my system down so that I can really work through my breath ~and breathe things out to work through. Asthma attack buildup ~and just preventing asthma attacks.
~Okay, ~now I always have my inhaler ~anyway, but that is why I bring that ~I go into detail in my podcast episode and video, why I always run music and why you should too. ~Okay,~ and the last thing, this is just a bonus thing that I bring with me when I'm trail running, ~and that ~is my dog. ~I love her. ~She's the best.
She runs ~somewhere between ~20 to 35 miles a week with me. Now, if you are running with your dog, I highly recommend that you talk to their vet and see how they feel about the running that you do. ~Okay.~ And if your dog doesn't run at all right now and you see these numbers and you're like, oh, I wanna run 35 miles a week with my dog.
Don't go from zero to 35. Don't go from zero to 20, maybe go zero to five miles. ~Okay. ~[00:18:00] It's been a slow buildup. ~She also, ~her name is Snick. Tal can see her. I have a bunch of shorts on my YouTube channel of her and I running together and check that out.
She loves running when it's colder ~outside. Okay. So ~during the winter when it's ~not negative below, but when it's like ~30 degrees ~out, ~she loves it. ~Okay.~ When it's 60 degrees out, she does very good. When we get to 70 plus, she has to run a lot less miles. You gotta be really careful with running with your animals.
~Okay. So this is just the bonus thing that I bring with me. Thank you. ~So it's just a bonus ~that ~I bring with me. Great. Having that running buddy as well. And just remember ~that ~when you're integrating all of this into your life, ~okay. ~Movement with running is movement is one of the three pillars of healthy living.
The other two pillars are tracking. That's why we bring our tracking elements with us to track miles, to track heart rate, to track caloric output. We wanna know what we're burning so that we know how much we need to refuel our system. ~Okay? That's pillar number two. ~And pillar number three is accountability.
That's why, I mean, I'm joking around with. My dog being my running buddy accountability partner, but she really is [00:19:00] because she now runs to get me. ~She's like, ~I'll be inside. And she's like, Hey, are we going running today, dad? ~Like she wants to run. And ~that accountability really helps and it gets me outside.
I love. Doing that with her. ~Okay, so those are the three pillars of healthy living.~ I have my healthy living guide ~that I live by ~that not only helped me lose 40 pounds, it has helped me keep it off becoming an elite, ultra runner, and just live a much healthier and happy life and my healthy living guide.
It's linked in the description below the video. It's linked in the show notes. Or you could ~also ~go to www.athletewithasthma.com/healthy-living-guide to grab your copy. It's gonna take you less than two or three minutes to read and start integrating into your life today. I'll see you in the next one
Thanks for tuning in to the Athlete with Asthma Show. I hope today's episode inspired you to overcome any perceived limitations you may have. Remember, your health and wellness journey isn't about perfection. I. It is [00:20:00] about progress. So I invite you to take a small step right now towards your goals, and if you found something helpful here, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share the podcast with others on a similar path.
Until next time, keep challenging yourself and redefining what's possible.
