One's limit is defined at that which one cannot go beyond. Hence it's impossible to exceed one's limits. I'm more about checking to see where those limits are than trying not to uh, exceed them. Limits are always a moving target, changing with fitness and age, plus there are many limits to check on, so that can occupy a good deal of time and energy and in the process, generate a lot of fun. The problem is, as Caloso says, that I can't seem to actually find them, which is undoubtedly a good thing.

I don't know ... I found the limit of the speed at which I can crash on pavement without doing serious shoulder injury. Took me a couple attempts to dial it in, but I nailed it.

In unrelated news, I found a few of the limits beyond which physical exertion will cause near-unconsciousness and cause my heart to pause a while between beats. I haven't completely quantified that last one ... and I don't hope to.

I avoid mental limits by simply not thinking deeply.

This book has probably been recommended here before. Maybe by me. https://www.amazon.com/Friel-Cycling...SIN=B004WIQJDS
I've been reading it since I was 45. I did back off a bit at 52 when I was worried about an increasing risk of ayortic aneurism due to an abnormal heart. My heart surgeon fixed me up over three surgeries so that I could get back to exercising in the style to which I've been accustomed.

I pushed myself a lot as a teenager on a bicycle, then 40 years of work (full time that is) so now I like to take it a lot easier, after all I have nothing to prove to anyone, my retirement life is mine to enjoy at the speed I feel most comfortable :twitchy:

That sounds like perfect advice for just about anything. Sadly, it's more than 42 characters, so it can't be the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

Dude, 42 is the answer to the Old universe, where there were still books. The new universe has a new answer: 142.

if you can't tweet it it doesn't matter.

Books ... I'd laugh if i even knew what a book was. Is that like a Macbook?

I'm on 7.5 mg's of Warfarin daily for DVT's (blood clots). I ride 17 miles each Saturday morning. I'd like to push it up a little (both time and mileage) but don't want the risk of a clot breaking free and then having a heart attack or stroke. Momma would be pissed at me if any thing happened and I'd be upset if I fell over and put a scratch or three on my old vintage Peugeot.
Jon

Do yourself a really big favor. Ask your doctor for a heart stress test. It's the only truly safe way to find out what your limits are (heart wise, anyway) and if something bad is going to happen, that's the place for it.

After years of century rides, racing, and daily commutes, I had a heart attack at 42. All along, I had a heart artery with a partial blockage and never knew it. I now have a heart stent, and at 65 years old, still ride, but I watch my speed and climbs now a lot more closely.

look up stroke while cycling, or cycling stroke

cpl years ago, after entering my stats into his computer, my Doc declared I had a 6% chance of dropping dead. if I smoked it would be 12%

so yeah, our 20s are long gone

You won’t know your limits until you reach them.

My heart gets checked about every 4-ish years, or so.

This is true semantically but untrue, really ... and since reality affects me a lot more than semantics ...

Because in reality, the closer we approach our limits, the more impact the forces against us have and the less impact our forces will have proportionally.

A good push will take you from 18-20 mph .... try breaking the wind to go from 38-40 mph.

You might not collapse and die, but a 100-mile ride might leave you unable to walk, unable to sleep from cramps and muscle pains, might leave blisters, might drain you so deeply you cannot even ride for a few days .... but a 50-mile ride might be easy, and a 75-mile ride, just taking you to the edge of your comfort zone. (Please do everyone a favor and insert appropriate distances instead of derailing the discussion by bragging about your ability to ride triple-centuries. I know some folks can, and you know that is entirely Not the point here.)

You can say, "I didn't stop pedaling and collapse, so I didn't reach my limit ... " at which point we are back to semantics, debating the definition of "limit."

Obviously the "limit" is death. There is no other hard limit ... because if you are still alive, you still might surpass any other limit (with the exception of the question, "How young can you be?")

But only ... well, I will not say fools and idiots, those terms are too strong ... only certain people Really live at the limit of life and death ... and they usually take the most care to survive. (BASE jumpers come to mind.)

(Whoops, let me clarify this. I do Not mean the people who lead extreme lives are fools and idiots, not at all. The people who willfully misinterpret terms in conversation in order to appear tough and potent was the group I was trying to describe ... Sorry. See disclaimer below regarding insufficient coffee consumption.)

The less .... again it is hard to find a term which is not too negative ... certain other people really try to explain that since they didn't die, they have not found their limits.

For instance, for each of us here, there is a certain weight we cannot lift. Maybe you could do one ounce more on a different day but for each of us, at some point we will simply not be able to lift the weight. Is that not a "limit?" You can claim, "I have not reached a 'limit.' I might lift more tomorrow," but the fact is, you have reached your limit.

I can ride so far and so fast on any given day. If I ride as far and as fast as i can, I have reached my limit ... sorry but there it is.

Some days my limits are determined by how much free time I have, or by weather conditions. During some of the extreme weather we have been having lately, I went riding just to see ... and when I was facing wind gusts of 35-40 mph, and the rain was so hard I couldn't see the road, which was covered with storm-blown debris, I decided that was the limit of how long I could safely ride. I could have stayed out there as the storm got much worse ... so ... did i reach my "limit"?

I have seen video of some cycling race, I think in Spain, where riders faced 100-kph winds or some such. They were trying to climb a hill and were literally being blown off their bikes. The winds were strong enough that bikes were sailing like kites.

Was that a "limit"? The limit of how hard a headwind into which a rider could advance? Those folks sure thought so.

Sorry to be so long-winded ... I haven't finished the first cup of coffee ... let me wrap this up.

When discussing "limits," it is helpful if people define at the start if we are discussing "practical limits" or "conceptual limits." The one has very useful practical applications ... like helping people go a little harder while avoiding injury and death.

The other is purely for personal motivational purposes. Fact is, we face practical limits all the time, every day. The boundaries of what we can do give our life structure--because we have to achieve whatever we can, within the limits reality imposes. We can go as far as possible, and find new directions and all that ... this is not defeatism ... but it is reality.

I can flap my arms as hard as I want but I am not flying.

This thread started out with a rational discussion of how hard to push without having a stroke or heart attack. Telling a person "Go for it!" is great. I guess. And then, if someone were to take that advice, I suppose you could claim limited liability, because you were just ranting on the internet after all. Saved by the limits! :D

Given choice of how I am going to die - I'll opt for "on my bike."

Hitting your limits very very rarely results in a stroke or heart attack. If you want to reach your potential you have to push yourself. FTP test is your limit but you will improve that unless you are at your limit but you won’t know it until you push yourself. Limit also does not mean physical you can reach your mental limit long before your physical limit.

Breath Measure
 

When I first started running using Work Of Breathing as a reliable measure of effort was a common thing. Over the years I have carried that measure into most other activities.

The goal is to stay aerobic for all except emergencies or very short overload periods.

Easy Breathing: Mild effort, able to sustain for long periods,

Harder Breathing But Able To Carry On Conversation Without Gasping: Maximum sustainable effort. Still aerobic.

Heavy Breathing with Gasping to talk: Maximum effort for short periods. Borderline aerobic.

Heavy Breathing, Cannot Talk, Frequent Gasps: Anerobic, heavy stress on body. Not sustainable. High likelihood of damage to body.

Gasping To Breath: Anerobic, Not Sustainable, Hope the bear chasing you runs down very soon.

More reliable than any machine and handles the day to day body fitness.

Having been down the stress test road I have to throw in a big caution flag about the usual stress test.

False positives are rampant. Often they result in negative life changes that are unnecessary, and harmful. Besides they are only a snapshot.

Nuclear stress tests are another matter. They are more reliable but also are snapshots.

Personally, if I had some reasonable suspicion there was a significant blockage in my cardiovascular system I'd want a complete workup, including an echocardiogram.

I've been packing some chewable baby aspirin in my seat bag in case of chest pain.

I've found that if I don't ride a race pace I'm enjoying time on the bike a lot more and end up with more time and miles on the bike. I can ride all day at a more moderate level. Let's face it, riding fast, hard and in the upper HR zones is hard, and requires a lot of training to ride well at that level..........just a matter of what your motives are.

I guess it's a matter of personal choice.

(1) Take a stress test. If you receive a 'false positive' it will usually lead to more tests, which may or may not lead to treatment options that may prevent a more serious issue.

(2) Opt not to take a stress test. Find out on that long climb, out alone in the middle of nowhere, that you do have an issue.

In my experience, I had zero suspicion that I had a problem. That is, until I had one.

I'd prefer being shot dead at 90 by a jealous husband :D

... Taxi ! ...

My wife always reminds me to ‘not go too hard’. Sure, not every ride should be hard. But when it’s ‘game on’, my limit is whatever my body will physically let me get away with. I can go pretty long under my threshold HR (about 163), limited time above 170-ish) an only short hard efforts at MHR.
I also train with power, and can use that to self-regulate my efforts as to keep me from going too deep into the red on either climbs or hard pulls. Whenever I burn a match, I absolutely must recover from that, which usually translates into getting dropped.
Finally,
I (try to) use polarization training (easy days easy, hard days hard) to be fresh when it’s needed. Otherwise, I’ll be fatigued and utterly worthless on my bike.

I don't shy away from hills. Climbing the uphills is my favorite outdoor activity. I don't pursue speed anywhere, but the satisfaction and thrill of pushing myself kinda puts things into perspective.

I don't go to doctors. If I die from the exertion, that will be ok. Sitting around is the prelude to death. I'd rather pedal to eternity.

I really like these last two posts.

Oh my, Mr Maelochs, I do believe I'm blushing.

Not quite so simple. A stress test showing an "abnormality " can, and often does, result in life altering medications, and activity restrictions. Plus, they can instill fear that prevents a person from intelligently living their life.

Interpreting electrocardiograms is as much an art as a science. At the same time we are still learning about the parameters of a "normal" heart.

Add in the doc's desire to limit liability and a wrong test can, in essence, ruin a person's life. Plus, never forget tests like this are merely snapshots. Plenty of examples of people dying shortly after "passing" a standard stress test.

As I stated, an abnormality that shows up in a stress test will usually lead to additional tests. I know in my case, a second test, this time with a radioactive agent, showed a 60% blockage in one of my heart arteries. As a result, my "life altering medications" include a baby aspirin and cholesterol medication daily.

If you don't understand your risks, how can you go about "intelligently living" your life? When dealing with a potential heart attack, ignorance is NOT bliss. I don't have any statistics, but I would wager that more people have died as a result of needing a stress test and not having one, than having one and dying anyway.

I don’t know about anyone else ... I noticed problems at least a year before I bothered with testing. I first thought I was working too hard in the gym ... then I thought I could fix whatever was wrong with diet and exercise.

Finally I found that I couldn’t walk fifty yards at a quick pace without sending my heart rate over 220.

I finally broke down and saw a doctor ... and was immediately scheduled for emergency surgery.

I have no idea how much harm I might have done to my heart during all the times I pushed until I felt sick. I don’t know how many times I nearly had my own emergency situation because I thought I could just push through whatever I was feeling.

I know I had a few literal heart-stopping moments from over-exertion. I just didn’t take them seriously until the time I took my pulse and couldn’t count fast enough.

Avoiding a stress test to avoid treatment is an option it could be a fatal option.

Get the test,. if you don’t like the outcome get a second opinion. If you don’t want to don’t take the meds (I stopped all my meds a few weeks after surgery (much to my doctor’’ dismay) and I haven’t died yet.)

But find out. You might just need to exercise more ... or you might have a 60 percent arterial blockage or some other life-threatening issue that will not heal, no matter how hard you exercise or how harshly you diet, and which will kill you before your time.

Just my opinion.

I have no idea what my limits are. I just keep riding. No doc advice asked or given. Yesterday was a typical ride - 29.1 miles with headwind all the way home. Over 50% of ride time HR was over 140 and cadence avg was 87. Age does not mean much to some of us. Guess I am lucky.

I'm guessing that everyone that keeled over from over exertion thought they were within their limits. I mean really. The only way to really know is push till something goes bad.

I've been satisfied with making slow progress and hopefully am not pushing myself to anywhere near my limits.