Yen

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...cientists.html

Most of us aren't professional cyclists who ride day after day in the mountains. However, many of us do ride for hours at a time.

cccorlew

Even if exercise does hurt the heart, not exercising hurts the soul, which is much much more painful.

Barrettscv 

I doubt that the typical cyclist who rides 100 miles a week is incurring the kinds of risks described in the article. When in doubt, ask your MD. I'm happy with my 10 days a month of riding, but I like two to three hours of cycling at time, thirty minutes is a warm-up for me.

digibud

Don't care. I'm just glad to have lost some 60lb and I don't think I would have done that with a simple 30-60 min a day a few days a week. Riding my bike excessively is far, far from the most dangerous things I've done, and living the longest life possible is not my most important goals in life. Enjoying whatever time I have is my goal and riding my bike is, for now, a major part of that enjoyment.

Mobile 155

This report on TV caused my wife to give me a "look" maybe not "the" Look but a questioning one. when they made the statements about people running multipal Marathons she said out loud, what about Centuries? Then they said the same thing about centuries. Even my doctor has raised his eye brows about my zone 4 climbing HR. But I have been through the coffee is bad for you and then coffee is good for you several times. Eat more carbs or eat less carbs, eat meat or don't eat meat all as if one brush will cover all of us in one pass. I have lost between 50 and 60 pounds in 4 years because of cycling and zone 4 or not that has to be better for me than not cycing more than a hour a day. Maybe I can be called a skeptic?

Bikey Mikey

Anything in excess can be bad for you, even exercise, but they are talking about extreme/excessive exercise--not what most of us do here.

Between walking initially(and eating less and eating better) and cycling, I'm 106 lbs less than I was in Sept. '10. The exercise and weight loss has improved my health greatly.

Artmo 

Interesting. In my youth I used to do a lot of long and strenuous cycling, albeit not competitive, so it may not be coincidence that I have some cardiomyopathy and a-fib. The a-fib seems to have been fixed by an ablation last November and the myopathy doesn't bother me at all. Keep riding!

Dudelsack 

This is a fascinating article that I noticed in my early hours coffee and wake up session. I went to the Mayo Clinic Proceedings to pull the full article, but as it's in "pre-publication" status, I had to pony up $31 for it. I'll just wait until they formally publish it and try to get it for free. The author is well-respected and the results are provocative, and I'm sure they will be hashing this out for years to come.

I've always been uneasy about the "central governor theory", in that, if such a mechanism exists, it's there to keep us from killing ourselves, and we exceed it at great peril.

Those who feel "we can be anything we want if we try hard enough" are just wrong, IMNSHO.

Doohickie

I've never run with a heart rate monitor or anything like that, but I do feel a certain internal "governor" when riding, especially riding fast with others. I can do it for a while, but there comes a point where it's just time to back off. I've heard that a key element of bicycle racing is dealing with the pain of exertion. I guess when I feel that pain beyond a certain threshold, I back off. I suspect the harm comes from habitually pushing beyond that point.

GFish

The article makes sense, to me, and also correlates to the tragic death in the link below.

https://www.dailycamera.com/news/boulder/ci_20575703/autopsy-micah-true-boulder-ultrarunner-died-heart-disease

woodway

In other news, scientists have discovered that breathing can be harmful to your health...

stapfam

1999 and I was intraining for my long hard ride. One weekend and we did a 40 mile offroad and I then did an extra 20 on the road complete with knobblies and a few lbs of Mud on the bike. Next weekend and a metric on the road. My co-rider- who was fit and was also intraining for the ride- asked me to take a couple of MPH out after 55 miles and just before the Long hill. next weekend and a 65 mile out and back on the last part of the hard ride. Went out hard- stopped for lunch and leisurely cruise back taking in the 3 hardest hills of the 100 mile route. Found we still had a bit of time on our hands so suggested we do one last hill. My co-rider groaned but did it with me.

That was on a Sunday- Wednesday going into work and I got indigestion. 1 hour later I was in the cardiac unit with blocked arteries. Angiogram and the Doc doing it asked if it was cycling or swimming? "Pardon"--he said that the way my Aorta was so clear- it was either swimming or Cycling as those are the two sports he knew of that would keep it that clear. My heart was pumping so strong that it forced the blood through the blocked arteries and saved my life.

So Like Mobile- Until I die of it- I won't believe it.

Dudelsack 

Depends what you're breathing

Blanchje

We all gotta go sometime. I'll take the chances on maintaining my ability to stay active as long as possible.

David Bierbaum

The Buddhists had it right; All things in moderation. In excess, even things that are required to keep on living, like oxygen and water, can actually kill you. In fact, I seem to remember that there have been several deaths in Fraternities from excessive water consumption during hazing.

RaymondK43

I agree almost 100% I do not have the time to ride 60 minutes per day. I have lost 10 pounds in a month, I realize that is not alot but it is weight loss and I am not in any hurry to get down to 170 to 175 from my current weight of 183. However, I do agree that bicycling is part of my enjoyment of a good life. It makes me happy and it just has to be healthy for me.

WPeabody 

Common sense, pay attention to what your body tells you, and get regular physicals... I had a heart stress test and sonogram done a few years back when I was horribly out of shape, and the doctor said I had a really strong heart. I used to run long distance, and hiked whenever I could. Maybe not as out of shape as I thought.... but cycling gave me an even better heart and some great gams as a bonus.

Dudelsack 

That Micah True story scared the poo poo out of me. I had some of his prodromal symptoms, which sent me to the cardiologist a month ago. Echo stress test said good muscle, bad valve. Still not sure how much I should be riding. Maybe I'll just go home and have a beer.

donheff

From the article and a similar one at Harvard Health Blog it sounds like regular marathons are potentially bad. I guess double centuries and back to back centuries might also qualify -- especially if you push the pace throughout. But 100 - 150 miles a week over several days doesn't sound like it qualifies for this caution.

DnvrFox

It is my understanding that everyone who breathes dies.

rubic

There is a scientific study, statistically proven, that all bank robbers, swindlers and other criminals drank milk as infants. Therefore, milk causes crime. Yeah, right. You don't think statistics can lie, do ya?

big john

I'll think about this while I am riding 8+ hours in the mountains this Saturday.

John E

In our society, too little exercise is a far more pervasive problem than too much.

bikepro

Just live you life and ignore this kind of nonsense. I'll lump this in the same file (13) as the new reports that say too little salt is bad you. "No one gets out alive".

Mort Canard

Life had been found to be a sexually transmitted disease and is in all cases fatal!