I know that there are many athletes who deal with asthma, some at the highest level. I also know that there are many different levels of asthma and different triggers.
Mine started roughly about 2 years ago (I'm 59 now) and my Doctor, a former National Level Cyclist in Canada says that adult onset asthma like mine is real difficult to manage.
I am on three medications at the moment.
Symbicort 2 puffs twice a day,
Spiriva 2 puffs once a day
Oxeze is both my pre-workout inhaler as well as rescue inhaler.
So, things are better than before I started these medications but I still have issues with intense work.
For example, last night I recruited two friends to help me go after my personal best up Cypress Mountain in Vancouver, 10.5K at 6% average.
At the 5K mark (this is 3K of climbing) I had to stop and had very strong breathing spasms. This is what happens with me, when I get into the high ranges of effort, my breathing gets rapid, oxygen to muscles starts to diminish and effort is even greater and when I stop, spasms. (I did finish the climb, albeit at a much lower effort)
Often when I ride with my club, I will go very hard up the first hill, 1.5K which brings spasms but since they wait at the top, allows me to mostly recover and then I'm usually ok for the rest of the ride, though it's mostly flat from there. I've read about others doing this as it helps to open the lungs, but it's a painful way to do it.
On that hill climb yesterday, we had about 1 hour of warm up, with some hills that we pushed on a bit, so I thought I could be ok.
Anyone else deal with this sort of issue? I know I need to manage my breathing better, but could use any tips or advice people can offer.
Thanks
Cervelo R3 and Cannondale Synapse, Argon18 Electron Track Bike
Mine started roughly about 2 years ago (I'm 59 now) and my Doctor, a former National Level Cyclist in Canada says that adult onset asthma like mine is real difficult to manage.
I am on three medications at the moment.
Symbicort 2 puffs twice a day,
Spiriva 2 puffs once a day
Oxeze is both my pre-workout inhaler as well as rescue inhaler.
So, things are better than before I started these medications but I still have issues with intense work.
For example, last night I recruited two friends to help me go after my personal best up Cypress Mountain in Vancouver, 10.5K at 6% average.
At the 5K mark (this is 3K of climbing) I had to stop and had very strong breathing spasms. This is what happens with me, when I get into the high ranges of effort, my breathing gets rapid, oxygen to muscles starts to diminish and effort is even greater and when I stop, spasms. (I did finish the climb, albeit at a much lower effort)
Often when I ride with my club, I will go very hard up the first hill, 1.5K which brings spasms but since they wait at the top, allows me to mostly recover and then I'm usually ok for the rest of the ride, though it's mostly flat from there. I've read about others doing this as it helps to open the lungs, but it's a painful way to do it.
On that hill climb yesterday, we had about 1 hour of warm up, with some hills that we pushed on a bit, so I thought I could be ok.
Anyone else deal with this sort of issue? I know I need to manage my breathing better, but could use any tips or advice people can offer.
Thanks
Cervelo R3 and Cannondale Synapse, Argon18 Electron Track Bike