Quote Originally Posted by eclectic View Post
ah ha! that is my overall problem - I never thought about it before.
I do have asthma and am trying a new inhaler that will hopefully help and may get a new preventative. But some of my lung problems may have came from the fact that I almost died of pneumonia when I was only 2 weeks old - who knows what damage was done to those tiny little lungs.

As I am gasping going up hills and the others are merrily chatting along - I just gasp out "Just you all wait until I can breathe again! ! ! "

But I must say, if I keep my weight down, strengthen my legs, and ride tons of hills I do see a lot of improvement.
Wow, that is a total description of me!
Even after riding 3500 hilly miles in 2007, I was still the only one gasping and breathing hard up hills while even people totally out of shape would be chatting and cruising up the hill! (But on the downhills I drop them like flies, and I can ride much longer distances than they can.) And yes I do improve with more walking and biking....but always lagging way behind others when it doesn't seem logical.
It's fascinating to me your story because when I was 6 months old I too almost died of pneumonia- in fact the doctors had already told my parents that they didn't expect me to live...it was that close. Now hearing your story I wonder about the longterm lung damage that may have caused. Pneumonia causes permanent scarring in the lungs, and scarred lung tissue just doesn't work as efficiently. Hmmmm....