I had a stress test on Tuesday.  The test was my final checkup after the heart attack on June 12, 2006. I passed the test with flying colors.  I am no longer required to take a beta blocker. That is great news because it was reducing my max heart rate by at least 12 beats a minute. Those 12 beats were really limiting my ability to reach my previous lactate threshold.  I can now start training like I used to.  After not knowing for so long if I would be able to race like before, I feel very relieved.  When you have a heart attack you lose a lot self confidence. You really begin to doubt if you can get back to where you were before.  This test has restored my belief in myself.

If you ever have a heart attack do not lose hope. By getting back on the bike, riding as much as you can and having good medical care, you will recover.

Paul   

This is the first week I can remember in months that I have not been outside on my bike.  I guess it had to happen but we sure had a great run.  This winter reminds me of the winter of 1982-1983.  That was the year I moved to the Pittsburgh area from Rochester NY.  I thought I had died and went to heaven.  The weather here that winter was really warm.  I don’t believe we had any snow until late January that year.  On New Years day I remember walking around outside for hours in my tee shirt. The temperature was in the upper 60s.  That entire winter was guite warm not unlike this one.  Of course no one was screaming global warming then.  We just enjoyed the nice weather; just as I have been doing this year.

 Paul 

Last night the Lebo Master Cycling team put in another training session.  To say these things are fun would be a stretch. But then again I really do enjoy them.

The team is made up of a bunch of over 50 (in many cases over 60) guys that love cycling and competiton.  One member of the team is a professor at the university of Pittsburgh. He arranged for us to train one night a week at the UPMC sports complex on the southside of Pittsburgh.  This give us a place inside with enough space for the entire team to setup our trainers. 

This session our coach (a former pro cycling racer) added sprints to the program for the first time this year.  The routine is to setup your bike gearing, go as hard as you possibly can for 15 seconds and then rest and recover for two minutes. We repeat that at least four to six times in a row.  We first to a 15 to 20 minute warmup before the sprints.  The first sprint is not to bad.  But by the last one you are completely out of breath before you start.  Of course this is not all we do.  After a two minute rest at the end of the last sprint we start a climbing ladder exercise.  Three minutes standing, two resting, five minutes standing, two resting, seven minutes standing, two resting… . You get the idea. We finish the session by doing intervals for about 15 minutes. 

At times during the training you feel like you will never make it to the end.  But by ten minutes after the session you feel great and are ready to do it again, on other day of course.

 I can’t stress enough how much this type of training helps keep us old farts in shape and young, well feeling young at least.  You should try it.

Paul

I just completed my first month of training for the coming bicycle racing season. I start my training in early December each year. The training has been real hard this time. Last year, in early June, I had a heart attack. It required two stents to fix the blockage. Even though I have been riding regularly since the middle of July the intensity has not been very high. Since recovering from the attack I have ridden around 2500 miles. A lot of miles but mostly just easy riding. I did a 75 mile ride with about 8000 ft of climbing in September. But that was the extent of any high effort riding until training started in December.

It has been very hard to accept having heart trouble when you ride a bike as much as I do. I usually had a blood test each year to keep an eye on my cholesterol. A month before the attack it was only 118. Not exactly high!

Anyway it feels great to be back working hard again. I find that high intensity training is really good for my self confidence. Everytime I finish, it is nice to know I was able to do it successfully. I have a nuclear stress test scheduled this month to verify that everything is ok. If I pass the test I will be ready to go as hard as I can. I am really looking forward to racing again.

The moral to this story is have regular checkups.  Just because you are active and have low cholesterol doesn’t mean you can’t have a heart attack!

Paul

The weather has been warm enough for riding outside most of the winter. However on days when it has been raining or to cold to train outside I have been using my Tacx trainer.  It is a very good way to train inside.  It’s three different modes allow you to control the way you train.

 In one mode it works like a normal trainer with a power measurement.  This mode allows you to monitor rpm, watts and heart rate on a dashboard on your computer screen.

In the next mode it provides a virtual world to ride in much like a video game.  The virtual terrain provides feedback to the trainer motor to mimic the effects the terrain would have on you just like riding outside.  This mode allows you to select various virtual environments to ride in. The effects of wind is also factored in. It also has other virtual riders that you can race against. My wife really likes this mode.

The third mode is called real video mode. In this mode you use various DVDs that have streaming video movies of actual cycling race courses or other places to ride.  As you play the DVD and display it on a computer monitor it provides feedback into the trainer motor. When the video is showing the road going up a hill the trainer makes the effort on your bike match the effort it actually takes to ride up the hill.  This mode is just like riding outside.  The DVDs have footage of many of the Tour de France routes,  scenic footage of various routes in Europe and the US.  In this mode I have ridden for over two hours inside without being bored.  This mode also lets you race against other riders previous times.  It allows you to race against yourself also.  If you need a trainer you should look into this one.