Through the Smog

Hills. Heat. Injuries. Bad nutritional decisions. Flat tires. Getting old. Tough competition. There are plenty of things that stand between you and your arrival at the finish line. But there’s a silent, invisible foe that most of us don’t think about. And it could prove to be your biggest challenge ever.

When you compete at or near the elite level of endurance sports, every second counts. The little things that you do can mean the difference between a podium finish and hearing the words, “Well, there’s always next year.” Aerodynamic handlebars, helmets and wheels for triathletes, lightweight racing flats for elite runners, and high-tech skin suits for swimmers can make or break an entire season – especially considering the miniscule differences in ability that float to the top of the talent pool.

So when Ethiopian runner Haile Gebrselassie withdrew from this summer’s Olympic marathon, citing Beijing’s high air pollution as his reason, we shouldn’t have batted an eye. After all, in the Olympic marathon, where seconds can separate first place from fourth, Geb had every reason to question the wisdom of competing in an environment that promised to launch an all-out frontal attack on his lungs.

Still, there were murmurs from the media and running insiders, including questions about his age and his ability to continue to perform well at the age of 35. But did Gebrselassie, already an asthma sufferer, have a legitimate complaint? Would Beijing follow up on its promises to deliver clean(er) air to the thousands of international competitors as they descend upon the Olympic games? Or would the smog simply be too thick to perform at his best and threaten his long-term athletic performance and health?
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In the warm hills of Southern California, on a morning bike ride or run near Los Angeles, the haze is not only visible. On the worst pollution days, for those with sensitive respiratory systems, your eyes can sting and a cough can result. And the problem isn’t endemic to the legendary skies above the City of Angels. Other U.S. cities have it nearly as bad... and some have names you wouldn’t expect to see on a list of “polluted cities”: Eugene, Dallas, San Diego, and Salt Lake City, to name a few. While the methodology and criteria for what constitutes “polluted” differs (for example, some cities rank high in ozone pollution all year long, while others have occasional spikes in airborne particulate matter), the issue is the same. We live – and exercise – in air that is not optimal for performance or health.

But back to Los Angeles. Imagine the city on its worst day, with a thick brown haze and pollution levels at their highest. Using the Air Quality Index, a number of 160 might register, eliciting warnings from authorities to stay indoors and cease all outdoor activity. Bad stuff by any yardstick, but it’s nowhere close to Beijing, where a similar reading, adjusted for slightly different sampling methods, can (and recently have) hit numbers just shy of 500.

Ironically, California can attribute at least a portion of its air pollution to China. Drifting clouds of dust and particulate matter float in the jet stream above the Pacific Ocean, eventually making their way to the Golden State. But most of the damage in California is self-inflicted, with industry and vehicle exhaust as the prime culprits.
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Chinese authorities have taken numerous steps to mitigate Beijing’s bad air. An entire forested area was planted close to the Olympic Village. Car usage and factory emission output have been mandanted by law to decrease. And in the most bizarre development, reminiscent of a bad 1950s cartoon or the dust-bowl Midwest, old army anti-aircraft guns have been loaded with the equivalent of dry ice to seed the clouds and force rainfall. Most of these strategies have failed miserably. Steel mills have demanded payments from the government as a trade-off for cutting production in the weeks leading up to the Olympics. Cloud seeding with the loud guns, while resulting in some light rainfall, has accomplished little to reduce smog, but has managed to anger Beijing residents who don’t appreciate the sound of the blitzkrieg. Although promised by the Chinese government, the prospect of clean air during the Games looks bleak.
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Gebrselassie might be able to back out of the Olympics, but for the rest of us mere mortals, time ticks away. We enjoy swimming, cycling, and running, and want to make the most of our active lifestyles. In other words, nothing is going to hold us back from our workouts or races – even if it eventually turns our lungs as black as a coal miner’s, dammit.

Rebecca Rusch might be a few degrees removed from mortal status, with a career punctuated by top race finishes around the globe. But she knows all about poor air quality and its effect on performance. As a sufferer of exercise-induced asthma (EIA) for the past six years, she has turned to inhaled medications to help her through workouts and long races. For Rusch, the inhaler is more than just an athletic fashion accessory.

“I didn’t know I had asthma until I was 32 or 33,” she says. “I moved to Colorado, and it felt like I never could get into good shape. I thought it was the altitude, and I thought I was pathetic and out of shape, even after two months there.”

After a round of tests confirmed EIA, she quickly found that she would improve her peak breathing flow by a paltry two percent when using inhalers. But two percent in Rusch’s universe makes all the difference.

Pollution is another story for Rusch. “I’m ultra-sensitive to cities and smoking environments,” she says. “Dirty air is worse than pollen or extreme temperature conditions. When I lived in L.A. – before I knew that I had asthma – it felt like I was sometimes breathing through a straw. Now, when I go to Las Vegas and Salt Lake City for trade shows, I usually don’t bother to work out. Here in Idaho last year when we had big forest fires, I didn’t train at all! It was better for me not to train than to take the risk.”
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Beijing has already proved that its air quality deserves a spot in the pollution hall of fame. Last September (a time when rainfall is near its peak), during a mountain bike race that served as a trial run for the Olympic course and logistics, only eight of the 48 starters in the men’s elite field finished, and just over half of the women’s field reached the finish line. Many, including American Adam Craig, blamed the air pollution for their failure to finish.

“I don’t drop out of races in my backyard, let alone ones I fly to the other side of the world for,” Craig posted on his blog (adamcraig.net). “But I did this one. I had no option. After two laps of riding very comfortably... my lungs stopped working. It started with a routine deep breath on a descent to recover a bit, which produced a sharp pain and fit of hacking, then progressed rapidly to a state where I was unable to take more than a quarter of a breath... even that produced coughing, hacking, spitting up all sorts of gross stuff and feeling nauseous and kind of scared.”
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It remains to be seen what the athletes at the Olympic Games will do to mitigate the inevitable effects of Beijing’s polluted air. It’s doubtful that we’ll see high-caliber athletes wearing filter masks during competition any time soon. More likely, the athletes will do what world-class athletes have always done in the face of adversity: suck it up (in this case literally), and simply give the best that they can.

Maybe the great champion Gebrselassie will have the last laugh, although that’s not suggesting that any satisfaction he might derive from his decision to stay home would be at the expense of the other athletes. Because when you can’t breathe, it’s certainly no laughing matter.

Tackling Air Pollution

Close to Home

Short of pulling your own howitzer behind you on a 10K fartlek workout, or paying your airline pilot buddies to dump dry ice out of the cargo hatch, what can you do to avoid the worst air pollution in your hometown? Use these strategies to stay ahead of the game.

• Choose your workout time wisely. Consider early-morning hours before the day’s commute starts.

•  Boost your body’s defenses. A strong immune system can be your first line of defense against pollutants of any sort.

• Wear a mask. U.S. Olympians are being urged to wear activated-charcoal filter masks beginning the moment they land in China. On the worst pollution days, it’s a good idea for everyone.

• Move inside. An indoor workout in a filtered-air environment is better any day than one in the pollution-choked outdoors... even if the sun is shining.