Gasping for air on a 5 minute Z5 effort!?

[netscriber]

OK, I am a little worried and wanted to see if theres anything wrong here. I am gasping for air at 180-185BPM on intervals.

Some background...My max HR is 194 and I can easily push upto 185-190 usually. On yesterdays 4x5 Z5b interval session with people at work I started gasping at 182ish. My legs had some more in them and I knew I could push a lot more. The power was there. The only difference was that I was gasping for air. There was stuff coming up my throat..kind gross I was spitting every 2 minutes. This prevented me from going further. It was horrible.

Has anyone experienced this? Maybe I have a congestion? Does this sound like it?

 

[yzfrr11]

OK, I am a little worried and wanted to see if theres anything wrong here. I am gasping for air at 180-185BPM on intervals.

Some background...My max HR is 194 and I can easily push upto 185-190 usually. On yesterdays 4x5 Z5b interval session with people at work I started gasping at 182ish. My legs had some more in them and I knew I could push a lot more. The power was there. The only difference was that I was gasping for air. There was stuff coming up my throat..kind gross I was spitting every 2 minutes. This prevented me from going further. It was horrible.

Has anyone experienced this? Maybe I have a congestion? Does this sound like it?

Welcome to the club. Sounds like a good L5 effort to me

 

[netscriber]

Welcome to the club. Sounds like a good L5 effort to me

It actually was a freakish but good workout for me.
What kept happening was that after every interval because of this issue the guys kept putting a minute on me. So I had to catch up with them in the rest period. So my rest periods were in Z4. The classic incomplete recovery interval that gave me some good lactate tolerance minutes.
However this is still an issue and I need to take care of it and do not want to ignore it and spend weeks on the sofa popping antibiotics.

 

[frenchyge]

Has anyone experienced this? Maybe I have a congestion? Does this sound like it?

Heavy breathing? Yes. Gasping for air? Not really, unless I'm trying to use an unusually high cadence for some reason. Mucous production? No.

 

[SolarEnergy]

That is a very good question.

I am gasping for air too when working out L5 intervals. Mine typically last 6 minutes though instead of 5 (because of the course profiles).

That pisses me off every time.

 

[bikeguy]

OK, I am a little worried and wanted to see if theres anything wrong here. I am gasping for air at 180-185BPM on intervals.

Some background...My max HR is 194 and I can easily push upto 185-190 usually. On yesterdays 4x5 Z5b interval session with people at work I started gasping at 182ish. My legs had some more in them and I knew I could push a lot more. The power was there. The only difference was that I was gasping for air. There was stuff coming up my throat..kind gross I was spitting every 2 minutes. This prevented me from going further. It was horrible.

Has anyone experienced this? Maybe I have a congestion? Does this sound like it?

Sounds like you have exercise induced asthma or perhaps had a cold while doing these intervals. I never produce flem doing intervals. Gasping for air, yes; sweating profusely, yes; drooling, yes; chest, ribcage and pain in my stomach yes, but never coughing up stuff unless I'm sick. You might want to avoid severe or even moderately severe exertion when you have a cold too.

-Bikeguy

 

[ToffoIsMe]

I sometimes cough stuff up when it is very cold outside and I work hard. What was the weather like?

 

[Woofer]

Has anyone experienced this? Maybe I have a congestion? Does this sound like it?

I go through the grasping for air in the last few minutes of each interval without the coughing up bits. But it does make me start to tear up.

Why are you looking at heart rate if the power is about right?

 

[netscriber]

That is a very good question.

I am gasping for air too when working out L5 intervals. Mine typically last 6 minutes though instead of 5 (because of the course profiles).

That pisses me off every time.

Most of them were around 5 minutes. One of the guys at work chose routes based on profiles/distances. The last one might ave been around 7-10 minutes. But its a horrible feeling. Mostly frustrating because I could have generated more power that was prevented because I was "drowning"

 

[netscriber]

Sounds like you have exercise induced asthma or perhaps had a cold while doing these intervals. I never produce flem doing intervals. Gasping for air, yes; sweating profusely, yes; drooling, yes; chest, ribcage and pain in my stomach yes, but never coughing up stuff unless I'm sick. You might want to avoid severe or even moderately severe exertion when you have a cold too.

-Bikeguy

No I dont have a cold. And I wasnt coughing. Stuff was just coming up my throat and I kinda had to "kraaaaghhh" it!
Right now when I am not riding I am perfectly fine. Nothing in my nose throat...etc.

 

[netscriber]

I go through the grasping for air in the last few minutes of each interval without the coughing up bits. But it does make me start to tear up.

Why are you looking at heart rate if the power is about right?

Well because I wanst generating the amount of power I could at that heart rate. I could generate more power and move my heart rate upto 190's..
But this pain(not exactly pain) gasping or drowning like feeling was preventing me from doing that.

 

[netscriber]

I sometimes cough stuff up when it is very cold outside and I work hard. What was the weather like?

Good question. The weather was in the 60's F...kinda dry. But after the ride many people were having a dryish feeling in the throat and some coughing..
Maybe there were too many allergies in the air and I might be too sensitive for them. Maybe not. Either way I need to find out and am looking for pointers.

At this point I dont know what to do..
Go to a doctor? And say...umm theres nothing wrong with me right now
Wait and watch? What if it gets worse
Try something? A degongestant over the counter?
Ride harder? The really old method ..."oh keep riding thatll clear ur lungs"

Importantly these people did not experience what I did during the ride.

 

[BlueJersey]

Did you eat anything heavy before the interval? Sometimes training hard on a full stomach can cause stomach problem. Last season whenever I go or race hard, I felt like vomiting. I was spitting and blowing my nose every 30 seconds. I didn't know why until I tried to eliminate dairy products (mainly cheese and milk) in my daily diet. The result was that I no longer have stomach issue except if I train on a full stomach. Even that it goes away very quickly.

Good question. The weather was in the 60's F...kinda dry. But after the ride many people were having a dryish feeling in the throat and some coughing..
Maybe there were too many allergies in the air and I might be too sensitive for them. Maybe not. Either way I need to find out and am looking for pointers.

At this point I dont know what to do..
Go to a doctor? And say...umm theres nothing wrong with me right now
Wait and watch? What if it gets worse
Try something? A degongestant over the counter?
Ride harder? The really old method ..."oh keep riding thatll clear ur lungs"

Importantly these people did not experience what I did during the ride.

 

[WarrenG]

Good question. The weather was in the 60's F...kinda dry. But after the ride many people were having a dryish feeling in the throat and some coughing..

This is common. Sometimes called "pursuiter's cough". It's the high volume of air going in and out of the airways that dries out the membranes in there and leads to the cough. Pollution defintely makes it worse.

Mucus is another story. Maybe a little sinus infection or something.

 

[netscriber]

Did you eat anything heavy before the interval? Sometimes training hard on a full stomach can cause stomach problem. Last season whenever I go or race hard, I felt like vomiting. I was spitting and blowing my nose every 30 seconds. I didn't know why until I tried to eliminate dairy products (mainly cheese and milk) in my daily diet. The result was that I no longer have stomach issue except if I train on a full stomach. Even that it goes away very quickly.

Nope. Nothing to do with the stomach. And no, didn't have solid food before the workout.

 

[netscriber]

This is common. Sometimes called "pursuiter's cough". It's the high volume of air going in and out of the airways that dries out the membranes in there and leads to the cough. Pollution defintely makes it worse.

Mucus is another story. Maybe a little sinus infection or something.

Umm..I didnt have a cough. There was stuff coming up..thats all. And then the restricted breathing.
But interstingly, yes I have sinus problems. But does a sinus infection make you gasp? This felt like deep inside the core.
And then this doesnt happen to me always. Why this time?

 

[netscriber]

OK, I omitted another small detail that got me concerned. Perhaps it will help others so I will post it here.

A week back at work they did our annual health wellness tests. One of the tests are Pulmonary function tests (PFT).

Now me being competitive and all proudly blew into the spirometer (what is it?)
http://www.health.uab.edu/show.asp?durki=59972
http://www.medproducts.com/A/Ab/Ab50058.html

To my disbelief my results were not that good.

FVC - 78%
FEV1 - 67%
Ratio FVC/FEV1 - 86%
FEF 25-75 - 47%

Now what does this all mean? Read this...
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~daa/lecture/pft.htm

If I read this completely and compare the cases suggested in this article I have obstructive lung disease. I am visiting the doctor and getting a formal test done and fix this situation.

 

[WarrenG]

OK, I omitted another small detail that got me concerned. Perhaps it will help others so I will post it here.

A week back at work they did our annual health wellness tests. One of the tests are Pulmonary function tests (PFT).

Now me being competitive and all proudly blew into the spirometer (what is it?)
http://www.health.uab.edu/show.asp?durki=59972
http://www.medproducts.com/A/Ab/Ab50058.html

To my disbelief my results were not that good.

FVC - 78%
FEV1 - 67%
Ratio FVC/FEV1 - 86%
FEF 25-75 - 47%

Now what does this all mean? Read this...
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~daa/lecture/pft.htm

If I read this completely and compare the cases suggested in this article I have obstructive lung disease. I am visiting the doctor and getting a formal test done and fix this situation.

Well, a treatable infection causing mucus in your lungs might cause the test result.

You may also want to ask your doc about trying an albuterol inhaler. They can give you a lung function test, then give you albuterol, then test again 20 minutes later to see what parts of your lung function improve. Doing one of those tests at a wellness expo is how I first found out my breathing problems were a kind of asthma (chronic inflammation of the small airways in my lungs), and albuterol helps get the relevant reading from about 70% of expected to about 90% of expected.

One of the benefits of the inhaler is that it will open up those small airways and this will lessen your chances of getting those infections, or help you recover faster from them.

You may soon find out how to improve your performance all at once.

 

[netscriber]

Well, a treatable infection causing mucus in your lungs might cause the test result.

you mean there might be mucus in the lungs? Why would that happen?

Thanks for sharing this. In many articles...just one of them here
http://www.physsportsmed.com/issues/1997/11nov/mink.htm
it indicates that VO2 max and LT are affected due to this. Muscular endurance is also compromised due to lesser oxygen reaching the muscles.

In your case, did you see improvements in performance after treatment? Was it curable or is it continuous and chronic and you have to continuously put an effort in preventing and curing it?

 

[fatrat]

"drowning like feeling "

Go to a doctor. Now.

This is probably exercise induced asthma, which is easily treatable, but must be taken seriously. It can and does kill fit young people. It could also be other things, so it needs looking at.

It does sound like EIA though, which is what I have. Diagnosis was somewhat complicated since I don't have any problems unless doing intense exercise. Basically I was given an inhaler and went away to try it. There was no difference over the 10 minutes when in the surgery so I then took it away, used it before exercise and it solved the problem. I then went back to the doctor and we have sorted out exactly what works for me. This bit also matters since if you take a reliever inhaler more than a couple of times a week, other options are better.

If you do find you have EIA, there's plenty of info out there about the effects of diet, irritants etc. These can vary from person to person though. What worked for me was keeping the cat out of the bedroom and removing all of the carpets from the house. This might make no difference at all to someone else.

My numbers on the spirometer have now gone up by 100 points even when I'm not exercising and I have no problems at all with hard efforts. Previously I'd always get dropped when things got really hard since I couldn't breath properly.

Arthur