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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I've just started my search for an elusive Black Bianchi frameset -- like the one pictured.
I'm an asthmatic too, its a condition which seems more manageable with age, and thankfully I get drugs free on prescription (as I live in Scotland) so its fully controlled. Your description of breathing through a straw is exact. One of the old wax coated ones that slowly collapses on itself...
Did you know David Beckham is asthmatic? Me neither - he hid it away, which I think is a real shame as a lot of asthmatic kids get bullied at school and it would have made them feel better about the condition.
Interestingly when I was a competitive rower a coach was always asking us to get checked for asthma or exercised induced asthma so we could get inhalers. I think he just wanted us all to be able take a few puffs to supposedly open our lungs up before each race. The reading I did showed that for non-asthmatics the performance enhancing effects were minimal to none... but as you said having had an inhaler in the past if you are congested on a given day it certainly helps, those days when you can see the yellow dust blowing off the pines were always tough when I lived on the west coast .. I think you are on to something - I might try riding with a taped up snorkel next season to simulate the "EPO-effect" you describe .. I'll let you know how it goes
@unversio
If you find any in the 53-55 range and it's not to your liking pass it along!
As for the topic at hand. My sister is asthmatic but can run farther and longer than most people I know. This article gives a little insight as to why. A couple of weeks back I rode with a sinus infection and a head cold and I can't remember gasping for air more than at that time. If that is any similarity to riding with bad asthma then you are more compliant with rule 5 than I am.
Wow!! 80%?? While I don't claim to be asthmatic, I've had a handful of attacks as a result of season allergies, which when severe, trigger a tight chest, shortness of breath. I've never experienced this in the saddle, and could imagine the panic I might feel.
Instead, with those season allergies, I deal with a fluid build up in my ears/throat, that heavy breathing can cause my ear drums to feel as though they might just explode. All the sniffing I do to attempt to balance the pressure, my riding mates might assume I just did a line of coke off the top of my handle bars.
While I'm not an asthmatic, for some reason I'm prone to pneumonia. The last time I got it (the 1st PDX Cogal), I followed up with my PCP. He gave me a breathing treatment and holy Merckx's ball sack: I felt like I'd tripled my already impressive lung capacity (not bragging, it's genetics), and felt like I'd drank 8 pots of coffee (or one a line of blow).
I used a inhaler for the remainder of the infection and it helped immensely. I'd hate to have asthma.
@scaler911
I dumped a motorcycle in the rain several years ago, and consequently had to give up my spleen. I have to get a pneumonia vaccine every few years. That shit scares me!
Fantastic picture of Der Kaiser (in spite of the spectator in the red running shorts). The stare up the road, the bike, the kit. I remember watching that Tour and thinking how understated his kit seemed. It looks even better now.
Also, I'm not an asthmatic, but I play one on TV. I can totally relate.
Another one here. On Symbicort twice a day, Ventolin if I get even a hint of getting wheezy. The real fucker is if you get a chest infection on the top. Last one I had left me barely able to stand up without getting dangerously out of breath. England, so I have to pay for my prescriptions. But they're not hideously expensive, what with this not being the US.
@scaler911
I had the same experience once a number of years ago when I was into running (except for the lung capacity--my lungs belong inside an even smaller animal). It was pretty fun, especially after spending a couple of weeks on my ass.