Helping a Lady Friend -- What's going on?

[b.spencer]

Hey,

I need a little advise. A friend asked me to help her "get in shape" and lose weight. Basic stats: 5'8", Approx 285 lbs. She's walked for several months now, a couple of miles to 3 miles a day, and has dropped about 30 pounds in the last year.

I can't get her into a gym to do some light weight training (and I have tried). All she wants to do is walking. Anyway, yesterday evening, I went to a local park, where she walks and stayed with her pacing for while, which wasn't really that fast. I asked her if she wanted to pick up the speed just a bit, and she said yes. We picked up speed about .5 mph (up to 3 mph maybe) and after one lap (1/3 mile), she was hyperventilating but without a fast heart rate (125-130 bpm). She said she felt like she couldn't get enough air, no matter how hard she tried.

But, within 2 minutes of slowing back to her pace, he breathing was normal.

What was going on? Did I push too hard to fast, a real potential medical condition, a mental thing about going faster than "her pace?" How can I help her gain in CV capacity if I can't really push her without that reaction?

[Condor]

I wouldn't do any guess work with this situation. Have her get the 'OK' from a doc regarding any potential health/breathing conditions before trying to step-up the workouts. We'll take it from there.