Having asthma is kind of like winning the lottery, except it happens to more people and instead of money you win a chronic difficulty in breathing. I wouldn’t say I’m proud to be an asthmatic, but it’s not information I’m ashamed to share. In doing so, I often discover others who are similarly afflicted, and upon doing so we instantly go from being perfect strangers to perfect strangers who know something insignificant about each other.
My asthma attacks are experienced in a variety of forms, ranging in severity from a shortness of breath to “holy shit, I’m dying”. You can liken an attack to breathing through a straw with your nose plugged; depending on how bad the attack is, the straw keeps getting smaller, going from the wide one you get with a Big Gulp all the way down to those little ones you get with a coffee at a crappy diner. Cycling with asthma is like breathing through those straws while doing wind-sprints up a flight of stairs.
This straw-breathing effect is caused by the contraction of the airways leading to the lungs. The traditional treatment is to use an inhaler to suck in medication which dilates the passages and restores them to a size that allows for comfortable – if still sub-normal – breathing. There are newer, more effective treatments but many of them scare me because they cite side-effects like spontaneous death.
After 38 years, I’ve come to understand a bit about what causes my attacks. There is the cold-induced sort – which can be quite severe – but in my case will usually resolve itself throughout the first hour of riding to where it becomes a nuisance rather than an impediment. I also have acute attacks, which for about 32 years I believed were caused by an allergy to sawdust. These don’t resolve themselves and the condition gets worse until I intervene with an inhaler or a visit to the Emergency Room.
It wasn’t until I moved to Seattle and started having more frequent severe attacks that my doctor here pointed out that it was “crazy” to suggest I’m allergic to sawdust and inquired as to what kind of quack I had been visiting in Minneapolis who would tell me such a thing. He pointed out, quite logically, that I was simply allergic to something that was aerosolized in sawdust. As it turns out, this same element is present in whatever pine trees give off from October to May. Thanks to the Pacific-Northwest’s monopoly on pine trees, I now carry a rescue inhaler with me whenever I go training during these months.
The thing about being a Cyclist with asthma is that Cycling, as an endurance sport, is quite dependent on the rider’s ability to breathe well. In fact, I’ve found that the single most important factor to how well I’m riding on any particular day, regardless of how fat or out of shape I am, is how well I’m able to manage my breathing. The exciting bit is that training with asthma is a lot like resistance training; you get used to a reduced ability to draw oxygen into your lungs, thereby restricting the supply that gets to your muscles. Its like reverse blood-doping. You get used to it and your body adjusts to the reduced supply of gun fuel. Then, on days when the air is clear and warm, you ride like you’re on EPO. I call this the “EPO-Effect”.
I read some time ago that 80% of Pro Cyclists are diagnosed asthmatics who hold a prescription for an inhaler. This makes for a remarkable attraction of gifted endurance athletes to the most breathing-dependent sport on the planet. Surely this is because the EPO-Effect makes asthmatics strong like bull, not for the dilating effect the medication has on the air passageways.
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And another. I love the variety of the articles here. I was diagnosed with asthma in 2006 at age 42. For a couple of years I refused to believe or accept it and my new found breathing difficulty was simply because I wasn't fit enough. Only after 2 trips to A&E within a year because I had to force a breath in did I stick to my daily preventer inhaler regime. I remember my boss dropping dead because of an asthma attack in the 80's and should have had a bit more early respect for the condition. Thankfully I haven't had too many episodes since 2008. Mind you I did have another chest infection through October but double doses of steroid and some generic antibiotics got on top of it before I was completely floored again. I prefer to ride without the reliever to open the airways first, maybe subconsciously for that Ventolin EPO effect when I do use it? This isn't cheating, I just see it as getting my lungs as close to what they would be if I wasn't asthmatic. When I raced the track it was very necessary.
Like you Frank something in the air irritates in spring (Rapesed blossom?) and cold air approaching zero degrees C can set things off. There's always a space in the caddy sack beside CO2, tube and tool for the spare Ventolin. Just in case.
When it all starts to go dark, maybe it's The Man With The Hammer approaching or maybe it's just time for a couple of puffs?
@scaler911 wait... I'm confused... your PCP (primary care physician I assume) squeezed some of the sacred sweat from Merckx's chamois and it cured your pneumonia?
@unversio
Many photos when you find it please. Merckxdamn that is a fine looking ride and kit. The kind that shouldn't be sullied by a matching helmet - only a cap at the most.
@DeKerr
Agreed.
@DCR
Promessa. Will unturn the frame to admire it -- protect the full integrity of the frameset -- and then find a demanding new owner to ride it.
@unversio
I have a campa record groupo waiting for a classic frame to grace. Ebay/craigslist hunting has been in full swing for the last week.
Man, this site just continues to surprise... It is interesting to note what triggers each persons episodes. I was fine until a day at school when I ended up on a nebuliser about 25 years ago.. I take one Ventolin before a group ride, and carry with. No need for a commute though.
My triggers are hard effort, dust, and cold, like many of you. I found surfing aggravates it, hence needing to dose beforehand, but the action of having to hold breath constantly really helped back on land. When I swum as a kid it also helped a lot, again, needed a preventive shot, but out of the water the breathing was good.
I surmised that holding breath improved lung capacity, so lungs not as stressed out of the water. With regards cycling, documented elsewhere just coming back from chest infection (a cold invariably ends up with gunky chest for me, 3 this winter!) & sinus infection, and I was riding like a bucket of shit. Believe the lungs are the weak point in my professional cycling CV, ha.
For this reason I spin to win on climbs, find that standing forces to much effort to the lungs...
@VeloSix Do what works, but sniffing will probably maintain/make your infections worse, especially the sinuses, snot-rocket that shit... Sinus infections are fucked.... To equalise, try the swallowing or yawning technique divers use...
@scaler911 I don't envy you. A relation was in hospital with pneumonia, looked like death, months on and still some days can't do anything as too weak... Pneumonia is fucked...
I guess with the restriction of airways, it must be like constantly training at altitude...
@DCR I did connect with a reputable seller in the Netherlands via Ebay. These frames are race ready with normal wear and paint chips. Purchased an Eddy Merckx Corsa Extra from this seller. You can get me thru Frank if interested in the seller. Also purchased a Gazelle Champion Mondial 1992/1993 TVM Bison Kit squad (Bart Voskamp) thru Ebay. These frames followed my crash in 2010.
Frank,
Ask your doctor if you would benefit from bronchial thermoplasty. It's a bronchoscopic procedure specifically designed for asthmatics. It's somewhat invasive since it usually requires short term endotracheal intubation and sedatives during the procedure, but you can usually do it in one day as an outpatient.We do them here and have had good luck improving functionality and reducing rescue inhaler use for the asthmatics we have treated. A bronchoscope with a special catheter is used to apply heat to the airways. This reduces their reactivity to whatever your trigger is. By the way, professional athletes that abuse the sympathomimetic bronchodilators (albuterol), do it for the stimulant side effects. These drugs, as you probably know well, are stimulants due to the fight or flight response that they trigger. Thus the reason why so many endurance athletes get TUEs for these bronchodilators. It's not that they are all asthmatics.
@Beers @scaler911 Pneumonia came on after being too inactive after breaking left clavicle in a crit. Trying to be too careful with healing straight in a recliner was my downfall. The Airlife breathing (holding up to 2500 ml) exercise brought me back. I felt like it was my time to die when an episode came on at 2:00am -- no way to breath. This was March 2012.