Sarah, I made it to Leadville by bus! By the time I got to Aspen I knew something was wrong and was afraid to try Independence Pass. Thankfully, I wasn't at Turquoise Lake or on Fremont Pass when it happened.

Emily, what you describe is the way I've been on hills for a long time. I just thought it was normal. I could push my heart rate pretty high but had that huffing and puffing going on. How often do you use the Advair?

When I lived in Cincinnati I used to ride with a group on Tuesday nights. I'd start with the 15 mph group and struggled to keep from getting dropped. The ride started in a river valley so we climbed immediately. If the humidity was high, which it was most of the time, I had a harder time. Once we got to flatter terrain I often out rode them and joined the 16 mph group on the way in. I thought I wasn't strong enough for hills. I didn't realize that all this huffing and puffing was asthma.

Pooks, the climbs here are long but gradual so it's easy to climb slow with a low heart rate which is what I was doing to compensate. However, by doing that you end up with your riding buddies way ahead of you. What I thought was odd is that I was having as hard a time climbing as I did last year when I was still recovering from ACL surgery.

Even though I didn't get to finish RTR the mystery is solved and I'm looking forward to next year.

Kathi