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Ride done, friend keeps breathing hard...

Old 07-14-13, 10:17 PM
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Ride done, friend keeps breathing hard...

So I did a 40mi ride with a friend. Hot out (over 80F which is abnormally hot for us. Without any joking, we aren't used to riding in that kind of heat)...he didn't drink enough...and we did stop for some lunch half way through. He had one water bottle in three hours...we pushed pretty hard...and when it was done we stopped at my place and he just felt like cr*& and it was a full 30 min before he really caught his breath to the point of relaxing. He wasn't gasping for air...but was breathing abnormally hard for being done. He was wiped and had to take it really easy. Not bonked. We finished reasonably strong. No point in asking about going to the emergency room. Not my call. Nothing came of it. He's fine but he took the next day off from riding. Anyone experienced this kind of a thing?
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Old 07-14-13, 11:09 PM
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I developed Atrial Fibulation a couple years ago. Your friends ride reaction sounds very similar. The heart stresses and beats excessively fast. So fast that blood doesn't flow correctly. It takes a long time to recover. A. Doctor visit is in order.

Was your friend wearing a heart rate monitor?
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Old 07-15-13, 01:02 AM
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Originally Posted by digibud
So I did a 40mi ride with a friend. Hot out (over 80F which is abnormally hot for us. Without any joking, we aren't used to riding in that kind of heat)...he didn't drink enough...and we did stop for some lunch half way through. He had one water bottle in three hours...we pushed pretty hard...and when it was done we stopped at my place and he just felt like cr*& and it was a full 30 min before he really caught his breath to the point of relaxing. He wasn't gasping for air...but was breathing abnormally hard for being done. He was wiped and had to take it really easy. Not bonked. We finished reasonably strong. No point in asking about going to the emergency room. Not my call. Nothing came of it. He's fine but he took the next day off from riding. Anyone experienced this kind of a thing?
Could be possibly heat exhaustion, if it's not a severe case, he is probably okay. 3 Hours hard riding with less then 1L of water, in conditions where it's hotter then usual, yeah I would put my bet on heat exhaustion.
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Old 07-15-13, 01:27 AM
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Simple dehydration.
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Old 07-15-13, 06:54 AM
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Originally Posted by Rowan
Simple dehydration.
This gets my vote. Dehydration can and will cause other issues that can be life threatening if the dehydration is severe enough.
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Old 07-15-13, 07:00 AM
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I had a scary experience in my 20's. Working track maintenance on the railroad (summer job) in 100 degree heat. That evening my heart wouldn't stop racing. Scared me a lot. I sat in a cool bath tub for an hour and then took a nap. Probably dehydration and heat exhaustion. Fluids are huge and you have to consciously force yourself to take fluids sometimes when the body "doesn't feel like drinking."
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Old 07-15-13, 07:29 AM
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Might be something or nothing. Good excuse for a proper physical exam plus blood work if not performed within a year.
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Old 07-15-13, 09:50 AM
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Where did you stop for lunch? Some of those places will take a person's breath away.

Too much smoke? Some folks are more sensitive than others and if the wind was blowing your way....
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Old 07-15-13, 09:52 AM
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If not used to doing so, riding in the heat could be life-threatening. It is something that requires a degree of acclimation. Even though I live in the desert, there are days when I won't even attempt to ride.

digibud, how much water did you drink on that ride? No ill effects on you?

Glad your riding buddy is okay. Make sure he drinks enough next time. Insist on it!
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Old 07-15-13, 10:36 AM
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My friend normally wears a hr monitor but not that day. It wasn't smokey (but today it is). I'm fairly sure it was dehydration...heat exhaustion. I drank roughly 2.5bottles of water. I'm on all sorts of wonderful drugs for my gunked-up heart arteries and have been warned that getting badly dehydrated and riding as hard as I do is a really not-smart thing to do. I think my friend may have realized that by now too...
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Old 07-15-13, 11:35 AM
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I frequently weigh myself after a ride in hot weather just to get a feel for my hydration. In the last few weeks it has been very hot here with temps in the low to mid 90s F with high humidity. Weight loss has only been 1 or 2 lbs during rides of three to four hours so I know I've been drinking enough.

I don;t know how much drinking cold water contributes to keeping cool but I much prefer cold drinks. I freeze water bottles, one completely full and one half full. The full bottle is used last and I keep it covered with an old fleece sock and it stays cold for the entire ride. Cold water encourages drinking for me.
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Old 07-15-13, 02:12 PM
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Originally Posted by berner
...The full bottle is used last and I keep it covered with an old fleece sock and it stays cold for the entire ride.
Yeah, I really like cold water too. The covering a bottle with a sock came up recently on BF, maybe in a different sub-forum. How do you put a sock over the bottle, and have it fit into the bottle cage? I think I'd bust my cages if I were to try to put a sock covered bottle in it.
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Old 07-15-13, 02:13 PM
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Originally Posted by digibud
My friend normally wears a hr monitor but not that day. It wasn't smokey (but today it is). I'm fairly sure it was dehydration...heat exhaustion. I drank roughly 2.5bottles of water. I'm on all sorts of wonderful drugs for my gunked-up heart arteries and have been warned that getting badly dehydrated and riding as hard as I do is a really not-smart thing to do. I think my friend may have realized that by now too...
Glad to hear that you weren't in the smoke. Probably not as bad as structural fire smoke but into the recesses of the lungs wildfire smoke can create some real problems.
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Old 07-15-13, 02:20 PM
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On really hot days I like to plan my routes past places where I can refill those bottles after my water gets warm. I can squeeze he warm water down my back just before I do.
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Old 07-15-13, 03:52 PM
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Originally Posted by volosong
Yeah, I really like cold water too. The covering a bottle with a sock came up recently on BF, maybe in a different sub-forum. How do you put a sock over the bottle, and have it fit into the bottle cage? I think I'd bust my cages if I were to try to put a sock covered bottle in it.
Somehow the fleece sock goes right over the water bottle from top to bottom. One of these days I want to get some wind-stopper fleece remnants and sew up a custom cover. There is an outdoor equipment supplier in New Hampshire, (Ragged Mountain) who has all sorts of fabric remnants in bins for cheap. I'm planning one or two weekend tours up there sometime this summer and will stock up then on fabric.
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Old 07-15-13, 04:10 PM
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Sock goes from bottom to top. Use an elastic band to keep the sock attached at the top and so it doesn't ride up and block the nozzle. If you use a metal bottle cage, ease the cage open with your hands so the bottle will slide in but still with some firmness. If you use polycarbonate cages or CF cage, then you might not have the same options, and will have to experiment with the thickness of sock you use.

Cotton socks work well. Kids socks work quite well for their size matching to the bottle. But be aware that in really dry conditions, the water will evaporate quickly. Seems to work for me in humid conditions while the bike is moving, but others argue that point.

I use a second bottle to drop water onto the socked one as required.

I just don't like drinking hot water from a bottle and will delay it as much as possible, especially when there isn't a freezer to ice the bottles.
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Old 07-15-13, 07:12 PM
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This probably isn't the case, but something that sounds very similar happened to a riding partner of mine. Around the middle of a hilly 40 mile ride also on a hot day, he began to wilt and couldn't get good full breaths. It continued after he got home so he went to the ER, and was diagnosed with a collapsed lung. Strangely, he is nearly 20 years my junior and in decent shape, so you shouldn't take any of this stuff lightly.
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Old 07-15-13, 08:10 PM
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Originally Posted by stilltooslow
This probably isn't the case, but something that sounds very similar happened to a riding partner of mine. Around the middle of a hilly 40 mile ride also on a hot day, he began to wilt and couldn't get good full breaths. It continued after he got home so he went to the ER, and was diagnosed with a collapsed lung. Strangely, he is nearly 20 years my junior and in decent shape, so you shouldn't take any of this stuff lightly.
If that were what it was he wouldn't have regained his normal breathing after awhile.

Sporatic pneumothorax is the medical term. It's usually caused by dried out blebs (which some people are born with) on the lungs. Smoke will dry them out and a collapsed lung after a neighborhood football game was the motivation for me to stop smoking cigarrettes in my mid 20s. Running or cycling will help strengthen the lungs and prevent further incidents but if ya'll are stopping to burn one your riding parter might want to take his tokes more moderately, lol.
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Old 07-15-13, 08:18 PM
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Originally Posted by Rowan
Sock goes from bottom to top. Use an elastic band to keep the sock attached at the top and so it doesn't ride up and block the nozzle. If you use a metal bottle cage, ease the cage open with your hands so the bottle will slide in but still with some firmness. If you use polycarbonate cages or CF cage, then you might not have the same options, and will have to experiment with the thickness of sock you use.

Cotton socks work well. Kids socks work quite well for their size matching to the bottle. But be aware that in really dry conditions, the water will evaporate quickly. Seems to work for me in humid conditions while the bike is moving, but others argue that point.

I use a second bottle to drop water onto the socked one as required.

I just don't like drinking hot water from a bottle and will delay it as much as possible, especially when there isn't a freezer to ice the bottles.
Guess I'm out of luck. Not only do I have carbon fiber cages, that would snap easily, but I also live in a very low humidity environment. If we get 30% humid, we all start complaining about how muggy it is.
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Old 07-15-13, 08:31 PM
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Originally Posted by volosong
Guess I'm out of luck. Not only do I have carbon fiber cages, that would snap easily, but I also live in a very low humidity environment. If we get 30% humid, we all start complaining about how muggy it is.
I use carbon cages, too. I use larger Zefal bottles than the normal ones but without the socks. I haven't broken one of those cages despite the wider diameter. A standard bidon with a narrower diameter with a sock wouldn't be a problem for me. I think CF cages are a little tougher than people give them credit for.

The polycarbonate ones I have are pretty good, but I think they would break sooner than the CF ones. I went away from using alloy cages a while ago, and my bottles have stayed much cleaner on the outside as a result.

I've ridden in really hot weather with low humidity, and find that depending on the terrain, towns aren't really that far apart when water bottles can be replenished and the sock/s doused again. I will take an extra hour of cool-ish water anytime over 15 minutes before it's the temperature of a cup of hot tea.

I always encourage people to experiment. It might work. Or it might not. But better to know than not.
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Old 07-15-13, 08:38 PM
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Camelbak and other companies make insulated bottles that work well - better than wet socks, and are normal size so they fit into cages well.
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Old 07-15-13, 10:46 PM
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Handlebar mounted bottle cages with covered bottles.
Yup, live in AZ where we ride 110 degrees . . . and there is no shade!
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Old 07-16-13, 01:34 PM
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I've tried to make the case for moving to Tucson but my wife took it off the table. Summer in Alaska is too hot for her so I'm looking for a place (no joke) that is cooler in the summer, with a short winter and isn't rainy all the time. High desert? Coastal area that isn't too rainy or expensive? I haven't really started searching in earnest but I'd like to find a nice area to retire to where we could bike and the weather was temperate. Riding in 110? Jeez. Unbelievable.
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Old 07-16-13, 02:07 PM
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Originally Posted by zonatandem

Handlebar mounted bottle cages with covered bottles.
Yup, live in AZ where we ride 110 degrees . . . and there is no shade!
I used to rake hotmix on a parking lot paving crew during the summer in Phoenix. I did this in my 20s though and don't think I could cut it at 62. We started our days before daybreak and ended them about 3:00 PM. We did take advantage of salt tablets which I never had to do in Texas.

Riding in 110.....That's brutal. I rode some in humid east Texas at 100 but I don't recall that being as hot as Phoenix.
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Old 07-16-13, 02:08 PM
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