Long Tom

Ok, some background. My wife is a slender, very young-looking 48 who's held her figure and looks great. I'm a lucky man. She's an avid absorber and parser of information and has consistently been well ahead of the curve on health and nutritional info and practices over the last 20+ years. She runs and does yoga and pilates aggressively.

I say that to illustrate why I'd even give her any credence on the below.

So last night we are kicked back after watching the end of season 4 of Big Love, which was a disappointment FWIW, and she kind of lays into me. She's worried I'm over-doing my riding- not so much that I'll get an over-use injury, which is my main concern, but other things... Says I look older, that I smell different, that she's worried I've crossed into the realm of where cardio becomes BAD for you due to oxidization and potential heart scarring and other stuff.

For reference, I rode 700+ hilly miles in August. I ride every other day like clockwork. My rides in August averaged right around 50 miles. I am guilty of spinning on the the flats- meaning I tend to NOT hammer hard, but rather putz along at 15-17 mph. This is partly because my routes include some big hills and I hit those pretty hard- I get right up near the limits of my cardio and bang hard on the hills.

So my point in that is that my rides are NOT 50 miles of obsessive race training or the like; at times I'm just cruising along with a HR in, I'd guess, the 80-90 BPM range.

Ok, so I promised her I would look into it and everything I could find fell into two camps. First, essentially advertising for the Crossfit BUSINESS model. Second, what else I found-medical columns and blog posts and the like, indicated that there's no reason to worry about this stuff unless one is a pro athlete training HARD for racing. Talking marathoners, pro cyclists, etc. Which is a far cry from what I'm doing to say the least!

I'm feeling great from the riding I'm doing and while I do plan on mixing things up a bit (50-60 mile rides are a long time in the saddle and get uncomfortable and boring sometimes; some shorter but more intense rides would be good I think), nothing I read made me think I am anywhere near any kind of point where I'd be seeing a net-negative health wise. Your thoughts?

BillyD

I'd look for authoritative references in the professional world before relying on information gathered, um, here.

I'm sure this is just a conversation starter, but I just wanted to mention that.

popeye

She's a runner that explains everything and I will give you a kewl starry bra.

Long Tom

Thanks. Agreed. Just looking for conversation as you say.

Terex

Read the following, and included references. Look for more recent updates. https://afibbers.org/resources/endurancesports.pdf

mike12

Man, I just got into shape this year, lost 45 lbs and now have to stop due to excessive endurance training. I guess I'll have to back out of the century ride scheduled for Monday.

rpenmanparker 

Never heard of too much cardio. I am aware that after a fairly low amount, the rest isn't doing you a whole lot of good. I am aware that you don't want to become emaciated from not keeping up your calories to the level of your exertion. I am aware you can change appearance and appear skeletal especially in the face if you go at it pretty hard. But I never heard of such a thing as too much cardio exercise on a cardio health basis. Certainly never heard of scarring. Should be easy to look up.

Long Tom

Interesting. Did not yet dig into the references. I think the key here is whether a person riding 3.5 times a week on average, for 50 miles, at a pace that averages (blush) 13.5 mph including my climbs.... probably around 15 mph if I wasn't climbing.... if THAT person is crossing into an unhealthy zone.

I am SO far from the type of training say a pro cyclist would be doing.

rpenmanparker 

Yes, but to paraphrase the old joke about the husband trying to kill his wife with too much sex, "Little do they know, tomorrow they die!"

Campag4life

OP...you said you were a lucky man...but forgot that but part.
To me she sounds like needless worrying. Some don't like the body changes that occur with distance cycling. For example if she likes you a bit plump.
Its hard to know if any of us will have a heart attack when riding. The great distance runner that died his 50's and wrote the famous book on running peaked some concerns. I have read of the accounts your wife is concerned about...scarring of the heart. My view is...if I die while riding my bike, I will expire doing something I enjoy. To me cycling is a fountain of youth...rode 65 miles today...and at times very hard. Listening to how you ride, I ride with greater intensity and I am 59. You can't safeguard against anything really. If you had a physical and your blood pressure and weight are normal...even a stress test wouldn't reveal your longevity...many die after a clean bill of health.
Each of our longevity is unknowable and I would say what you are doing is far better than if you did much less or nothing.

Bacciagalupe

There was an influential study a few years ago which suggests that too much high-intensity cardio work might have some detrimental long-term cardiac effects. The theory is that when you do high-intensity work, you are (briefly put) enlarging your heart, and it recovers in a day or so. The authors believe this may cause some long-term cardiac issues. However, they do recommend low- and moderate-intensity endurance efforts. The study is also very preliminary, and notes that overall endurance athletes are healthier as a group than non-exercisers. (https://download.journals.elsevierhea...9612004739.pdf)

I'm not sure why cycling would make you smell different, unless you aren't showering after you ride.

Cycling could make you "look older" if you're spending lots of time in the sun, and not using sunscreen. It could also be, well, that you would look older regardless of any exercise activity you do.

She may also just be upset over the amount of time you're spending on the bike, and she's expressing it via these other arguments. Good luck sorting THAT one out.

rpenmanparker 

My heart attack occurred while riding. Of course I was drafting a truly lovely young woman. Not sure what that had to do with it. I hated to stop, but really thought that might be the best plan. I don't think it had anything to do with too much riding considering every couch potato male in my family likewise has suffered an MI at the same age, about 49. It's statistics,man.

RollCNY

OP,
I did not save all of the links, but they are starting to link many of the heart attacks that used to be blamed on "excess cardio" to untreated sleep apnea. Endurance athletes are the fastest growing group of folks diagnosed with apnea, and I was recently diagnosed with it.

Through training, we develop a lower heart rate and resting respiration rate. Also, we take in a great deal of oxygen when exercising, and train our bodies to use it quickly. So what all of this means is that our oxygen saturation falls quickly, and we are longer between breaths to bring it back up. So minor obstructions will cause a high number of apneas in a short time period.

Your heart is a muscle, and rebuilds itself when you are in deep sleep. Apneas prevent deep sleep. So you can be tearing down your heart, and never rebuild it. The resulting death gets labelled a heart attack, but it isn't from the classic cardiovascular causes.

So, if you snore, or don't dream, it may be worth checking out. If you smell bad, I can also suggest some cleaning products.

AdelaaR

Why do you guess your heart rate?
That seems like a pretty low guess or you are really going extra slow there.
Most people have that kind of heart rate when they're just walking around.

AdelaaR

Exactly!

Machka 

1. If you're worried ... see a Dr.

2. I have had heart problems since I was born (damaged valves, irregular heartbeats, genetic predisposition toward blood clots, etc.), and I've been seeing heart specialists since I was about 4 years old. When I started cycling a lot (10,000 km/year), I went for a complete physical, and a whole set of heart tests, and the specialist told me (and the group of students who were observing all these tests) that because I was exercising as much as I was, my heart was compensating very well for the damaged valves etc. He encouraged me to keep it up.

And a bit more recently, when the genetic predisposition toward blood clots was discovered, my Dr and my specialist encouraged me to exercise ... walking, cycling, etc. ... I'm not supposed to sit still for any length of time.

Homebrew01

She's nuts that your are riding too much from a health standpoint. What does she use as a source ?

Bah Humbug

I'm dating one, of course.

popeye

Congrats, have you told mom yet?

HAMMER MAN

this is really interesting my resting heart rate is around 46 bpm sometimes lower and i was told that i had bradycardia. And about 4 years ago due to sleep issues I would wake up gasping in the middle of the night. I had a sleep study done and got a C-PAP as they explained it as upper airway resistance syndrome, {their explanation**. funny though I seldom dream anymore. and i never really snored from what my wife said do you have a link on this?

Gluteus

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3538475/

Green Lantern

I'd keep 2 things in mind:

1) Crossfit isn't a bad idea. It is a bad *marketing* implementation of a good idea.....Being a well rounded individual is how we should strive to be. Right?....Sure we can mix in our hobbies or passions, such as riding, and even commit to it "full time", but ultimately being well rounded is ideal, no?....It should not be regarded as a cult as it is, just the Reebok Crossfit movement.

2) Your body needs a chance to recover. I can't speak in depth, but I am aware of the idea of so called "body cycles" - i've heard taking a break or reducing volume/intensity - every seven years can allow your full body to recharge. It is truly amazing how much we stress our bodies in the long run....I mean consider travelling/taking an extended break. Even a couple weeks and get back into it slowly. You'd be surprised about how well you could return.

(I'm a skeptic and I think i'm pretty much on top of rational health philosophies...my personal opinion is that there are alot of different ideas out there. None of them are 100% right, but taking the salient point of each will be the best result - ie. most tend towards moderation (salt, fat intake) for example)

CbadRider

The looking older part has nothing to do with cycling, unless you ride in the sun all the time without sunscreen. Ditto for the smelling part, unless you've stopped bathing.

I'm female and I'm guessing she's bringing this up because she has some other issue that's bothering her.

pdedes

Unless you are going into ketosis because you are catabolizing muscle mass, go to lush.com and pick up some karma soap. Demon in the dark is good too.

jetjock

This is from Dr. Mercolas website. Think it's some of the same study as Terex posted.

https://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fit...ign=20130823Z1