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Coughing spasm after hard efforts on bike/run
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For as long as I can remember if I put in a solid VO2max effort for a sustained period of time over 3-4min i will always wind up with a brutal coughing fit that lasts for a few hours afterwards. dry cough, not sick related with tons of mucus coming up.
When it happened when i was younger i chalked it up to being sick. But as I've trained more, and specifically done things like FTP tests more regularly, i am finding triggers for it. It's only when i go Zone 5,6,7 that things really rear their ugly head.

Google tells me it could be asthma related....and all i can currently think is "great another cyclist with asthma" and the implications that is going to have.

Anyone else have experience with this and suffer similar symptoms? If I go to the Dr and it is asthma what is that going to mean for racing?

edit: if it helps i live and train at 3700', and the air here is generally dry as all hell with humidity usually below 50%.
Last edited by: RONDAL: Mar 4, 15 20:22
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Re: Coughing spasm after hard efforts on bike/run [RONDAL] [ In reply to ]
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I've seen entire teams of pro cyclists have coughing fits after a TT at 3700 feet altitude, so, it may be relatively normal.

Could be asthma though, and it is really really easy for a doctor to diagnose that. Just takes a visit or two, and may only take a couple of simple medications to fix it.

Really isn't that bad most times.



Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter
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Re: Coughing spasm after hard efforts on bike/run [jackmott] [ In reply to ]
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Got this after crit racing or crit specific training. That and an iron/blood taste in my mouth. As far as I know, I do not have asthma. I find it odd that sustained efforts at vo2 causing short term symptoms would be compared to a malady like asthma which is an impairment to lungs. Few people can sustain such effort for any length of time to begin with. It is like when somebody dies at 92 because their heart stopped. It is a natural cause at that point, not a heart attack.


"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden
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Re: Coughing spasm after hard efforts on bike/run [TheForge] [ In reply to ]
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It is not unusual for hard efforts to trigger asthma, it does for me.
If I didn't do anything aerobic I wouldn't know I had asthma.
I go above zone 4 when not medicated, and boom, asthma is triggered.

TheForge wrote:
Got this after crit racing or crit specific training. That and an iron/blood taste in my mouth. As far as I know, I do not have asthma. I find it odd that sustained efforts at vo2 causing short term symptoms would be compared to a malady like asthma which is an impairment to lungs. Few people can sustain such effort for any length of time to begin with. It is like when somebody dies at 92 because their heart stopped. It is a natural cause at that point, not a heart attack.



Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter
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Re: Coughing spasm after hard efforts on bike/run [jackmott] [ In reply to ]
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jackmott wrote:
I go above zone 4 when not medicated, and boom, asthma is triggered.

My N=1 is not quite as night and day as you suggest it is for you, but I'll just call a lot of my "albuterol-assisted" days NP-busters. ;-)

The question of who is right and who is wrong has seemed to me always too small to be worth a moment's thought, while the question of what is right and what is wrong has seemed all-important.

-Albert J. Nock
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Re: Coughing spasm after hard efforts on bike/run [Derf] [ In reply to ]
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Derf wrote:
jackmott wrote:
I go above zone 4 when not medicated, and boom, asthma is triggered.

My N=1 is not quite as night and day as you suggest it is for you, but I'll just call a lot of my "albuterol-assisted" days NP-busters. ;-)

I don't use albuterol. I use Flovent once or twice a day in the morning and/or evening, it is an anti-inflammatory, not a bronchi-dilator or stimulant.



Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter
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Re: Coughing spasm after hard efforts on bike/run [jackmott] [ In reply to ]
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Ah, I only use an emergency inhaler before races. 95% of the time it's not worth it or unnecessary. It's only really noticeable for maximal efforts (for me)

The question of who is right and who is wrong has seemed to me always too small to be worth a moment's thought, while the question of what is right and what is wrong has seemed all-important.

-Albert J. Nock
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Re: Coughing spasm after hard efforts on bike/run [ In reply to ]
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It's fairly common, when I was training on the track with a squad (cycling) we had this one set where we would take solo laps and then finish with teams of 3 entries pulling one lap each. Resulted in over 3/4 of the squad dry coughing for a good 5 mins after, plus nasty reflux that used to burn the crap out of your esophagus. I've also had it after TT races where you go hard enough to get tunnel vision for the last 2-3 min.
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Re: Coughing spasm after hard efforts on bike/run [RONDAL] [ In reply to ]
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How is the air pollution? Any photochemical smog? Because your reaction is also typical of exercise in high ozone environments.

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Re: Coughing spasm after hard efforts on bike/run [RONDAL] [ In reply to ]
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Question (excuse for the layout and the graphic words),

- Do you get this attack, once it gets to the point were in back of you're throat it gets very dry and then that triggers the violent cough.
- when you cough, you cough as if you sound like a chain smoker (but you are not), somewhat a violent cough like, as if you are coughing up a lung. When you are done coughing, you're eyes tears up and perhaps wiping the side of you're lip from saliva.
- when you do cough, it's not a standard cough, it's a cough that it literally hurts you're throat & chest area and somewhat like a vomiting reaction when doing so, but you're not, it's the way you're body is reacting to the cough. Once the cough lets out, you feel rejuvenated or like new again, because of the cough it wets you're mouth and you become ok, till it drys up again then the coughing starts.
- Do you get this attack more during the winter months? While exercising, the air for me as I see it, is thinner, so I have a tendency to breath more through my mouth, thus causing it to dry up, then comes the cough.
- When you go running, does the cough act up starting from mile 1 till mile 3 then you are ok the rest of the way.
- In cycling, does it act up when you literarily push so hard, to the point of the equivalency of running a sprint.
- Whether you're running or cycling you tend to spit, but not regular spit, but spitting out flem and no matter how much you spit out it seems you have a very unlimited supply.
Last edited by: DE' ADRE: Mar 5, 15 12:20
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Re: Coughing spasm after hard efforts on bike/run [DE' ADRE] [ In reply to ]
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Sounds like others experience this as well.

For me I have never had standard asthma, only 6+hrs of coughing post very intense workouts. it's not any old ride, or workout, its the full max effort crit races, Vo2max testing, FTP testing type efforts that cause the symptoms to appear.

It's almost as if i've irritated the back of my throat and now its inflammed. The coughing doesn't go down into my lungs, so i dont get the ol' smokers hack or deep chest cough. its just a dry cough from an irritated throat.
Someone else mentioned the iron taste int he mouth, i do get that as well, don't know if that is related or not.

Air pollution is pretty good where i live. Last night when i did the test the ppB of NO, NO2, NOX, CO, O3, were all less than 40.0, and total hydrocarbon count always hovers around 2.0ppM
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Re: Coughing spasm after hard efforts on bike/run [RONDAL] [ In reply to ]
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Asthma is just constriction of the lungs/airways, it is either chronic or acute. If you describe asthma symptoms, you can't then say "I don't have asthma", you do - but it is only acute when you finish a hard effort. For me it is the very cold weather, nothing will constrict lungs like 5 degree air going into them. Either way, an inhaled shot of albuterol will relieve the symptoms. I don't know where you live, but say you were to go someplace very humid and maybe 65 degrees, I suspect the symptoms wouldn't be so bad. Either way, you seem to be quite normal.

Quick edit, I mentioned albuterol but you need to be careful not to take more than USADA allows which is 1600 micrograms over 24 hours. I don't think 2 puffs will put you there but it is something to keep in mind.
Last edited by: patsullivan6630: Mar 5, 15 7:59
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Re: Coughing spasm after hard efforts on bike/run [RONDAL] [ In reply to ]
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I'm not sure that I get exactly the same symptoms, but I do get pretty bad coughing fits if I haven't done VO2 style efforts in a few days. I have found that deliberate, slow, deep breaths over the course of about 10-15 minutes calms it down.
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Re: Coughing spasm after hard efforts on bike/run [jackmott] [ In reply to ]
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I understand. But asthma is usually associated as an illness. You suffer this when you are at elite levels of activity. Can't we call it something that makes it stick out, something cool.


"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden
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