Strength to Weight Ratio?

[Sky King]

Wahine, love your guidance. I wonder about increasing lung capacity as well or does is that just a mental thing related to better fitness? As in because fitness has improved it seems like capacity has improved (by capacity I mean the ability to breathe better and go longer without running out of air)

[Wahine]

Wahine, love your guidance. I wonder about increasing lung capacity as well or does is that just a mental thing related to better fitness? As in because fitness has improved it seems like capacity has improved (by capacity I mean the ability to breathe better and go longer without running out of air)

This seems like a simple question on the surface, but really it's not. I think what you're referring to here when you say lung capacity is cardiovascular fitness. Making that assumption, you're right, as cardiovascular fitness improves, when you ride at a given speed or power output, all other things being equal heart rate and breathing rate should go down as you improve.

Lung capacity can refer to different things but if I remember my pulmonary function stuff correctly, by definition it refers an aspect of lung volumes. This doesn't change readily with exercise the way that efficiency of oxygen transport does. So really what's improving is not how much air you can get into your lungs, but how quickly and efficiently you can get the oxygen out of the air, into your bloodstream and utilize it in your muscles. That changes a lot and quickly with exercise. So you get more oxygen to your muscles with less effort from both your heart and your lungs, therefore you feel less out of breath as you exercise.

Does that answer your question?

[bluebug32]

Congrats on your weight loss! Just some food for thought...climbing (and increased speed actually) is also quite skill based, so even if you have the power and less weight to pull up hill, you might want to work on things like carrying momentum into a hill and pacing your efforts during climbs. When you're riding with others, are you hiding in the pack as much as possible to save energy and utilize the draft? Are you targeting your weaknesses, pushing yourself on the bike, doing intervals, etc. or just riding?

[li10up]

Lots of good info and input. Firstly, I did and have been losing the weight very slowly. I've been riding for about 6 years so I think I'm pretty good at riding smart...drafting, hills, etc. I am a little better on the hills but still get dropped. It just seems that when they pour on the power for any extended length of time on the flats I just can't hang on. I run on Mon/Wed, swim and do group bike rides on Tue/Thur, rest on Fri. and then Sat./Sun do a semi-long run and a semi-long bike. So no, I don't really do bike specific training...just hard group rides. But I do try to do hill or interval work and tempo training on my runs.

I'm going to have to pay more attention to if it's cardiovascular or legs. But as of right now I'm thinking CV. A few years back I had a lung function test done because of some other concerns (nodule in lung...benign) and they said I was borderline COPD and/or that I "might" have exercise induced asthma. I'm thinking maybe this is my limiting factor and that maybe I should address this again with my GP on my next visit that's coming up in a month.

It's just really frustrating to have worked so hard to lose weight and it not paying off as much as I thought it would...

[Wahine]

I'm going to have to pay more attention to if it's cardiovascular or legs. But as of right now I'm thinking CV. A few years back I had a lung function test done because of some other concerns (nodule in lung...benign) and they said I was borderline COPD and/or that I "might" have exercise induced asthma. I'm thinking maybe this is my limiting factor and that maybe I should address this again with my GP on my next visit that's coming up in a month.

This could quite possibly be the answer.

[Bethany1]

Check out the exercised induced asthma or COPD. I just got my inhaler a little over a week ago and the difference has been amazing. Hills are SO much easier and long distance (for me as a newbie) rides have gone so smoothly.

It took me forever last summer to get past 6 miles and finally made it up to around 20 miles round trip near the end. In a week, I've pulled off two 10 mile trips, one on hills and one on a bike trail. I would have done more, but I rotated my hip last weekend and haven't been up to riding until Friday.

I'm still taking it easy, but cycling is turning to be amazing now and not a grueling test of oxygen intake like was last year and when I would go over the winter.

Good luck!