Randomguy Posted July 29, 2015 Share #1 Posted July 29, 2015 Cycling to ExtremesAre endurance athletes hurting their hearts by repeatedly pushing beyond what is normal? http://velonews.competitor.com/cycling-extremes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Road Runner Posted July 29, 2015 Share #2 Posted July 29, 2015 "Are endurance athletes hurting their hearts by repeatedly pushing beyond what is normal?" Well, this doesn't apply to me. I'm not an athlete and I'm not pushing the limits. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randomguy Posted July 29, 2015 Author Share #3 Posted July 29, 2015 Well, this doesn't apply to me. I'm not an ahtlete and I'm not pushing the limits. Hell, I don't even ride a bike! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirtyhip Posted July 29, 2015 Share #4 Posted July 29, 2015 I don't know. I do have a pre-mature beat. A cardiologist told me that.My longer rides are in the area of 4-5 hours. I don't think that is extreme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randomguy Posted July 29, 2015 Author Share #5 Posted July 29, 2015 I don't know. I do have a pre-mature beat. A cardiologist told me that.My longer rides are in the area of 4-5 hours. I don't think that is extreme.Are you schralping on a constant basis during these rides? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Road Runner Posted July 29, 2015 Share #6 Posted July 29, 2015 I don't know. I do have a pre-mature beat. A cardiologist told me that.My longer rides are in the area of 4-5 hours. I don't think that is extreme.I think they mean in terms of heart rate. If you aren't pushing your limits in that regard, then you are probably okay. But if you read the whole article, it seems they are very fuzzy about "the gray area", i.e., what is good for you and what might be too much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsnip Totin Jack ★ Posted July 29, 2015 Share #7 Posted July 29, 2015 My resting rate is 44 bpm. Last bp was 120/90. I'm probably doomed. Thanks for the additional dumptruck load of dark clouds in my life, I needed that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirtyhip Posted July 29, 2015 Share #8 Posted July 29, 2015 Are you schralping on a constant basis during these rides?Heck no. There may be times that I sprint to catch a QOM, but mostly I am pacing nicely. You can't ride for hours and be in the red line. More like endurance zone. Resting HR in the 50's here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UglyBob Posted July 29, 2015 Share #9 Posted July 29, 2015 I'm not and endurance athlete or anything, but according to my GP, my cardiologist and just about every other doctor in his group, 40+ years of riding is what saved me when I had my heart attack. They all agreed if my heart was not as over-developed as it is, I would have died a long time ago. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UglyBob Posted July 29, 2015 Share #10 Posted July 29, 2015 Heck no. There may be times that I sprint to catch a QOM, but mostly I am pacing nicely. You can't ride for hours and be in the red line. More like endurance zone. Resting HR in the 50's here.Yup. Some people don't get that it's all about average speed, not top speed. Back off a little and you'll last a lot longer at a relatively higher level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Road Runner Posted July 29, 2015 Share #11 Posted July 29, 2015 Yup. Some people don't get that it's all about average speed, not top speed. Back off a little and you'll last a lot longer at a relatively higher level. I've been doing a lot of that recently. I'm finally realizing I'm not ever going to be a competitive cyclist. Crap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randomguy Posted July 29, 2015 Author Share #12 Posted July 29, 2015 I think they mean in terms of heart rate. If you aren't pushing your limits in that regard, then you are probably okay. But if you read the whole article, it seems they are very fuzzy about "the gray area", i.e., what is good for you and what might be too much.It looks like it is down to your unique physiology. I used to push every ride when I was younger, really push. Not because I was fast, but because my friends were faster. Later, when I got an HR monitor,and went out for 4 hours or so, I would sometimes average 150+ in heart rate over the course of a ride. Of course, I also totally detrained every year, too, so I probably recovered pretty well from 2 months of poor to so-so fitness, 4 months of good fitness, and declining into no fitness after September - October every year. The last three years, I have had almost no fitness, so I am not sure what to think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Road Runner Posted July 29, 2015 Share #13 Posted July 29, 2015 Dying of a heart attack while out on a nice ride is not the worse way to go. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Come Lately Name Posted July 29, 2015 Share #14 Posted July 29, 2015 "Death Rate Among Endurance Athletes 100%!!!!" 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddmaxx ★ Posted July 29, 2015 Share #15 Posted July 29, 2015 I'm a heartless bastard 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerrySTL ★ Posted July 29, 2015 Share #16 Posted July 29, 2015 I had a heart attack while riding in 2000. I'd done a lot of centuries before that. After the heart attack I did 4 double centuries or further. Of course I'm not pushing all that hard and try to keep from going anaerobic during longer rides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoneWolf Posted July 30, 2015 Share #17 Posted July 30, 2015 Yup. Some people don't get that it's all about average speed, not top speed. Back off a little and you'll last a lot longer at a relatively higher level.Agreed. If there's one thing I taught people who came onboard when I was riding heavier, it was "You can always trade speed for distance."Heck, my first ride this *year* was last weekend. It was fifty-six miles. I couldn't have done it without running for several weeks before, but I was able to do it, and do it without dying at any point because I was generally going 12-14mph. That, and oatmeal, the miracle pre-ride food.I'm still kind of going "Man, I actually did a half century". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UglyBob Posted July 30, 2015 Share #18 Posted July 30, 2015 Agreed. If there's one thing I taught people who came onboard when I was riding heavier, it was "You can always trade speed for distance."Heck, my first ride this *year* was last weekend. It was fifty-six miles. I couldn't have done it without running for several weeks before, but I was able to do it, and do it without dying at any point because I was generally going 12-14mph. That, and oatmeal, the miracle pre-ride food.I'm still kind of going "Man, I actually did a half century".I did the same did the same thing. I wrote 56 miles last I wrote 56 miles last week on my on my 1959 three speed. It feels good to say you did a half century on a 42 pound bike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen ★ Posted July 30, 2015 Share #19 Posted July 30, 2015 I have a dodgy heart valve that will need a new set of rings one day. I don't ride in the summer much because over heating can be really troublesome for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentonMakes Posted July 30, 2015 Share #20 Posted July 30, 2015 Yup. Some people don't get that it's all about average speed, not top speed. Back off a little and you'll last a lot longer at a relatively higher level.If I'm going to get longer rides in then I need to work on this. A little easier pace in the first hour will make the fourth or fifth hours a lot more comfortable.I have a "functional murmur", and a scan when I was 19 or 20 showed a pinhole between two chambers - I was told that wasn't a big problem and for all I know it may have closed by now. My BP has been great the last three or four times it's been checked.If anything I don't go aerobic enough when I'm riding. I'm usually pushing the biggest comfortable gear, not spinning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Square Wheels Posted July 30, 2015 Share #21 Posted July 30, 2015 I'm usually pushing the biggest comfortable gear, not spinning.For endurance you might want to look into changing this. I think you'll actually conserve energy with a higher cadence and a smaller gear. I try to ride in the high 80s, low 90s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentonMakes Posted July 30, 2015 Share #22 Posted July 30, 2015 For endurance you might want to look into changing this. I think you'll actually conserve energy with a higher cadence and a smaller gear. I try to ride in the high 80s, low 90s.I know this, but it's hard to change it because I've been riding that way for 30 years. I will need a handlebar-mount computer with a cadence readout to coach me through that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsharr ★ Posted July 30, 2015 Share #23 Posted July 30, 2015 Hell, I don't even ride a bike!I have a stable of unused bikes but I am heartless Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randomguy Posted July 30, 2015 Author Share #24 Posted July 30, 2015 My resting rate is 44 bpm. Last bp was 120/90. I'm probably doomed. Thanks for the additional dumptruck load of dark clouds in my life, I needed that.Anytime. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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