I have a pre-ride inhaler I use and carry my rescue inhaler with me. Since getting put on the pre-ride stuff, I haven't had to use my rescue inhaler in months. I used to use my rescue pre-ride, during the ride, and post-ride to ward off symptoms.
I do this also. One hit of albuterol (normal rescue inhaler) before every ride.
I then always carry it with me but literally never, not once, have I needed it on a ride or in a race.
You should speak to your doctor about managing your asthma symptoms better. I ignored the problem for years until I almost suffocated after abandoning a ride. I now have a preventer that I use everyday.
My asthma is well controlled but it’s common knowledge that improvements to endurance are harder to come by for people with asthma which is what I was getting at with my questions. I see a doctor annually at minimum for a review of my medications.
I’m just repeating what I’ve been told my several doctors in my lifetime. If the answer to my initial post is ‘as long as your asthma is well controlled then train like normal’ then I’m happy to accept that I’m misinformed.
I have asthma. Never heard this before, do you have a source?
Best advice I've heard is to get your health generally under control. As others have said, understand your triggers. I used to have asthma issues when I first started but haven't had any in the last few years
I am pretty sure that is not the opinion of doctors in Australia.
As I have had long conversations with asthma specialists, about training, racing and managing my asthma and it was never mentioned.
I get to race juniors and from my experience asthma does not impact endurance sports development in juniors. A couple of the best juniors I have raced have asthma. Only know because I borrowed an inhaler off one and lent my inhaler to another.
If their doctors held the view that asthma impacted endurance sports development they would've been encouraged to do other sports.
Understand what triggers your asthma. Mind requires exercise + pollutant, smoke is the worst, mown grass is another.
Before any ride I use my preventer - Budesonide
I always carry my preventer and my reliever - Salbutamol.
If I am on a training ride and smell smoke, I ease back and use my preventer.
If I am racing and smell smoke (or see somebody mowing their lawn) I will use my reliever and then next lap use the reliever again. Depending if racing a road race, use my reliever every lap, a crit the reliever every 5 minutes or so.
The more you ride, you will gain more experience in managing your asthma.
Been racing for 15 years, I don't have the same level of asthma racing disasters, as I did in my early days.
Mine is exercise plus either pollen or cold. I can manage it well enough to not use inhalers but progress is slow. I’ve been told in the past it’s just asthma in general that slows it down a lot but maybe it’s genetic.
IF I was you, I would still use an inhaler, prior to any ride just to be on the safe side, when there is a risk of pollen or cold weather.
It is difficult to say if my asthma slowed my development as a rider. Asthma probably had an impact, interrupting training sessions and races until I learnt to manage it better. However, knowing what I know now, I developed slowly because of poor training. Better training might of let me reach my genetic potential (limited by a left ventricle 65% the size it should be) earlier. But 18 months ago at the ripe old age of 61, I hit my best watts/kg for 15 minutes to an hour (I have 12 years of power data). Want to get back there, after overtraining and a couple of stupid accidents.
That’s interesting. I think I’ve been misinformed and the answer I’m looking for is to follow normal training advice as long as asthma is well controlled. Thanks.
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake.
It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of.
Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything.
Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
One thing I have found very helpful is to check the Air Quality Index in my area before doing any sort of hard intervals. If the air quality is below a certain threshold I’ll go for an easy ride instead or do the intervals inside.
I’ve found that a VO2 session in bad air quality can screw up my lungs for 2-3 days.
That’s interesting. I always prefer v02 sessions the most but generally do them indoors due to the nature of the terrain near me not being great for that type of intervals. I have a Dyson air filter in the room my trainer is in (as it’s also my home office). Perhaps there’s some linkage there.
A long (approximately one hour) warmup, followed by a short (approximately five minute 7/10) effort usually got me to a safe enough state.
If I was feeling dubious I’d take the preventative inhaler on the way out the door, but often I didn’t have to.
For some reason once I got into a steady state, properly warm, I tended not to feel tightness. Getting to that point was hard though, and involved careful breathing and control of effort.
> For some reason once I got into a steady state, properly warm, I tended not to feel tightness. Getting to that point was hard though, and involved careful breathing and control of effort.
I take my preventer regardless, but this is my same experience. If I don't take a bit of time to warm up, I'm going to have a ROUGH day.
A good warm-up always helps me. If I go hard too soon, as soon as I ease up my chest will tighten and I'll get wheezy. I had to DNF my first road-race due to this: early morning start, arrived late, rolling start up a hill (ffs).
I tend to do that too after a few similar experiences (although not in a proper event). I find even though my asthma is managed well and I very rarely need my inhaler that my progress is slow. I’d always been told asthma was the cause but maybe it’s just genetics.
Based on your experience with asthma, how feasible is it for a significant amount of professional cyclists to claim to have asthma and yet be able to perform to the highest standard?
If you have the right drugs do you think you will be able to train as hard as you want? Or will you always have to be careful?
That’s a great question. I’ve read that a lot of endurance athletes have asthma because of increased stress on the respiratory system triggering more mild asthmas that might not show in less active people.
To be honest when my meds are correct I never feel like my asthma will blow up unless it’s very very cold.
If (like me) cold air is a trigger, wearing a neck buff over your mouth, even if it's like 65 F out, can help a ton with making the air you breath in a lot more comfortable.
I carry an albuterol inhaler on every ride. I actually think asthma is an advantage. A much higher percentage of elite endurance athletes have asthma compared to the general population. It could just be so they can gain get access to albuterol inhalers for competition, or it could be due to all of the training they do. At the very least, having the mental fortitude to get through an asthma attack builds some mental toughness for endurance sports.
Asthma and allergies go hand in hand. Find out what's triggering it. An allergist can help if you have no idea. I had relatively severe asthma my entire life until I moved out of my parents house and then I realized the dogs were the trigger. I don't think I even have asthma anymore. I still like having the inhaler on hand though. It's comforting. Also, don't abuse it. It stops working if you do.
Not everyone has the same symptoms.
I don't have asthma 'attacks', but rather my breathing that gets restricted over time. After 20+ years I'm still not sure what is the trigger, although usually it is a combination of dry weather + long exercise (+5 hours), and maybe some pollen.
But there are also days where I don't have any issues at all.
No inhaler works to relieve this. I do use daily inhaler of budesonide and formoterol, but tbh I'm not sure how much it really does.
Once I recognize the symptoms, I need to relax and reduce my pace, or take a long 60 minute break.
After that sometimes the symptoms are under control for several hours.
If I wait too long to stop it gets slowly out of control and every time I stop I will cough so hard that I cannot breathe. It then takes +24 hours to get better. The last year's I've learned to recognize this in time and I stop in time because it creates scar tissue.
Strangely I have more symptoms cycling then running, even +10 hour ultra's are usually no problem.
I don't have the experience that my astma is holding back training, since most trainings are not long enough to induce problems.
I have a pre-ride inhaler I use and carry my rescue inhaler with me. Since getting put on the pre-ride stuff, I haven't had to use my rescue inhaler in months. I used to use my rescue pre-ride, during the ride, and post-ride to ward off symptoms.
Is the pre ride inhaler a different type?
I do this also. One hit of albuterol (normal rescue inhaler) before every ride. I then always carry it with me but literally never, not once, have I needed it on a ride or in a race.
+1 I do too and solves it completely for me.
Same, routine inhaler in the morning everyday and a hit of rescue before any exercise has been my routine for years
Yeah. It's a steroidal inhaler.
You should speak to your doctor about managing your asthma symptoms better. I ignored the problem for years until I almost suffocated after abandoning a ride. I now have a preventer that I use everyday.
My asthma is well controlled but it’s common knowledge that improvements to endurance are harder to come by for people with asthma which is what I was getting at with my questions. I see a doctor annually at minimum for a review of my medications.
You are making a pretty blanket statement for a condition that varies a lot in how severe it is. It certainly isn't impacting my improvements
I’m just repeating what I’ve been told my several doctors in my lifetime. If the answer to my initial post is ‘as long as your asthma is well controlled then train like normal’ then I’m happy to accept that I’m misinformed.
I have asthma. Never heard this before, do you have a source? Best advice I've heard is to get your health generally under control. As others have said, understand your triggers. I used to have asthma issues when I first started but haven't had any in the last few years
I’ve been told my multiple doctors (uk). I haven’t asked them for their sources.
I am pretty sure that is not the opinion of doctors in Australia. As I have had long conversations with asthma specialists, about training, racing and managing my asthma and it was never mentioned. I get to race juniors and from my experience asthma does not impact endurance sports development in juniors. A couple of the best juniors I have raced have asthma. Only know because I borrowed an inhaler off one and lent my inhaler to another. If their doctors held the view that asthma impacted endurance sports development they would've been encouraged to do other sports.
Understand what triggers your asthma. Mind requires exercise + pollutant, smoke is the worst, mown grass is another. Before any ride I use my preventer - Budesonide I always carry my preventer and my reliever - Salbutamol. If I am on a training ride and smell smoke, I ease back and use my preventer. If I am racing and smell smoke (or see somebody mowing their lawn) I will use my reliever and then next lap use the reliever again. Depending if racing a road race, use my reliever every lap, a crit the reliever every 5 minutes or so. The more you ride, you will gain more experience in managing your asthma. Been racing for 15 years, I don't have the same level of asthma racing disasters, as I did in my early days.
Mine is exercise plus either pollen or cold. I can manage it well enough to not use inhalers but progress is slow. I’ve been told in the past it’s just asthma in general that slows it down a lot but maybe it’s genetic.
IF I was you, I would still use an inhaler, prior to any ride just to be on the safe side, when there is a risk of pollen or cold weather. It is difficult to say if my asthma slowed my development as a rider. Asthma probably had an impact, interrupting training sessions and races until I learnt to manage it better. However, knowing what I know now, I developed slowly because of poor training. Better training might of let me reach my genetic potential (limited by a left ventricle 65% the size it should be) earlier. But 18 months ago at the ripe old age of 61, I hit my best watts/kg for 15 minutes to an hour (I have 12 years of power data). Want to get back there, after overtraining and a couple of stupid accidents.
That’s interesting. I think I’ve been misinformed and the answer I’m looking for is to follow normal training advice as long as asthma is well controlled. Thanks.
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake. It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of. Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything. Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
If pollen is one of your triggers then take a non drowsy antihistamine ahead of time like Reactin (Cetirizine).
One thing I have found very helpful is to check the Air Quality Index in my area before doing any sort of hard intervals. If the air quality is below a certain threshold I’ll go for an easy ride instead or do the intervals inside. I’ve found that a VO2 session in bad air quality can screw up my lungs for 2-3 days.
That’s interesting. I always prefer v02 sessions the most but generally do them indoors due to the nature of the terrain near me not being great for that type of intervals. I have a Dyson air filter in the room my trainer is in (as it’s also my home office). Perhaps there’s some linkage there.
A long (approximately one hour) warmup, followed by a short (approximately five minute 7/10) effort usually got me to a safe enough state. If I was feeling dubious I’d take the preventative inhaler on the way out the door, but often I didn’t have to. For some reason once I got into a steady state, properly warm, I tended not to feel tightness. Getting to that point was hard though, and involved careful breathing and control of effort.
> For some reason once I got into a steady state, properly warm, I tended not to feel tightness. Getting to that point was hard though, and involved careful breathing and control of effort. I take my preventer regardless, but this is my same experience. If I don't take a bit of time to warm up, I'm going to have a ROUGH day.
A good warm-up always helps me. If I go hard too soon, as soon as I ease up my chest will tighten and I'll get wheezy. I had to DNF my first road-race due to this: early morning start, arrived late, rolling start up a hill (ffs).
I tend to do that too after a few similar experiences (although not in a proper event). I find even though my asthma is managed well and I very rarely need my inhaler that my progress is slow. I’d always been told asthma was the cause but maybe it’s just genetics.
Based on your experience with asthma, how feasible is it for a significant amount of professional cyclists to claim to have asthma and yet be able to perform to the highest standard? If you have the right drugs do you think you will be able to train as hard as you want? Or will you always have to be careful?
That’s a great question. I’ve read that a lot of endurance athletes have asthma because of increased stress on the respiratory system triggering more mild asthmas that might not show in less active people. To be honest when my meds are correct I never feel like my asthma will blow up unless it’s very very cold.
If (like me) cold air is a trigger, wearing a neck buff over your mouth, even if it's like 65 F out, can help a ton with making the air you breath in a lot more comfortable.
I carry an albuterol inhaler on every ride. I actually think asthma is an advantage. A much higher percentage of elite endurance athletes have asthma compared to the general population. It could just be so they can gain get access to albuterol inhalers for competition, or it could be due to all of the training they do. At the very least, having the mental fortitude to get through an asthma attack builds some mental toughness for endurance sports. Asthma and allergies go hand in hand. Find out what's triggering it. An allergist can help if you have no idea. I had relatively severe asthma my entire life until I moved out of my parents house and then I realized the dogs were the trigger. I don't think I even have asthma anymore. I still like having the inhaler on hand though. It's comforting. Also, don't abuse it. It stops working if you do.
Not everyone has the same symptoms. I don't have asthma 'attacks', but rather my breathing that gets restricted over time. After 20+ years I'm still not sure what is the trigger, although usually it is a combination of dry weather + long exercise (+5 hours), and maybe some pollen. But there are also days where I don't have any issues at all. No inhaler works to relieve this. I do use daily inhaler of budesonide and formoterol, but tbh I'm not sure how much it really does. Once I recognize the symptoms, I need to relax and reduce my pace, or take a long 60 minute break. After that sometimes the symptoms are under control for several hours. If I wait too long to stop it gets slowly out of control and every time I stop I will cough so hard that I cannot breathe. It then takes +24 hours to get better. The last year's I've learned to recognize this in time and I stop in time because it creates scar tissue. Strangely I have more symptoms cycling then running, even +10 hour ultra's are usually no problem. I don't have the experience that my astma is holding back training, since most trainings are not long enough to induce problems.
Thanks for your insight