Interesting video from a Cardiologist Can you be so fit…that you die early?
Fantastic video. Thanks for sharing.
Without jumping to conclusions too much, The Midlife Cyclist book also has a lot of info about cardiac issues in highly trained middle-aged athletes, and is highly recommended reading.
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I found that book to be really good too - and put some things in perspective for me as well… I’m somewhat addicted to pushing myself hard on climbs and in general. At 43, even though I’m fit and healthy, maybe that’s not such a good thing. I’m finding it hard to force myself to back off and just ride more mellow, even when (really especially if) riding solo. I love TR and the workouts and the system - and am fully on board with it being the best way to get faster… but circumstances like this make me wonder if the style of training (intense intervals and sweet-spot work) is really good for us aging athletes, or if we’d be better off just riding at endurance pace and very infrequently going up into the red zone. I guess that’s toeing into a polarized vs. sweet-spot debate though… . Of course none of this may have anything to do with Rab’s death… sometimes things just happen and there’s no good explanation for it.
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Ageing???
43???
Wait until your 57 and still addicted to TR and riding 6 times a week. I just cannot ease off. My wife and 25 year old son can’t understand why i still do it.
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Interesting video for sure.
It is starting to be pretty obvious, at least to me, that the level of exercise we do probably isn’t the right prescriptive amount when it comes to the optimal amount for life longevity.
That said, I am aware of it, and for me, the tradeoffs are worth it. I want to be fast and I want to win races. In order to win, you have to put in the effort. Exercise is fun for the most part, and I definitely enjoy it, but sometimes I do dread certain workouts because I know they are going to hurt. Long threshold efforts, over/unders, etc, I have some stress going into those efforts. But overall, I feel so accomplished at the end that it makes the effort worth it and that is why I do it.
I liken it to college or school… it isn’t always fun writing papers and studying. But it is a worthwhile investment because of the later rewards. For me, sometimes these hard workouts are the same.
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Seems there are some signs that the spike protein can result in coronary thrombosis. Check out this video beginning around the 18 minute mark. Not saying that it’s the case in this particular instance, but might be worth keeping in mind for those exerting their bodies to the extreme end of performance.
Find General Assembly Meeting #55 from below:
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Whats the spike protein?
In this case specifically referencing the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2.
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Super interesting and enlightening video. Thanks for sharing!
Is it worth splitting this thread? Maybe make a separate thread about sudden cardiac death in athletes so as not to have speculation about the cause of Rab’s death here?
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Good point +1
Use it or lose it…
@mcneese.chad I started this thread and agree with @AndyGajda ’s suggestion - can you help out here please?
I am happy to help, but I am not sure I know what to prune from here for a separate post.
If you or someone can identify the specific posts to split out, I will pull them as appropriate.
I also don’t know if one post above is best to use to form the new thread, or if someone should make one more appropriate to start the separate topic.
This is all over my head and I don’t know what relates directly here vs stuff that should be split.
@mcneese.chad - I would suggest splitting from the post quoted above, ie this would be the first post in a new topic.
OK, as you can see above, I moved the OT items to a separate topic. I TOTALLY guessed with a topic title and will update if you have any suggestions for improvement. Thanks for your consideration & help in splitting the topic. 
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Agreed.
But I think endurance sports are a fountain of youth along the pathway of life. In moderation, I believe endurance sports and strength training are both critical to longevity and specifically quality of end of life. Problem is, many wait until they’re retired to try to recapture some youth.
But I would agree that 15hrs a week on a bike probably isn’t optimal for our health in the long term. 
. When I’m done racing, I’m thinking 3-6hrs of endurance activity including hard intervals, and 2x strength per week will be really good for staying healthy, in shape, and still being able to go do fun things fast.
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F@#$ Dave! 
Interesting article, but lots of theories. I do wonder if you look at the U shaped curve he talked about, I would guess his recommendation at the end puts you at the optimal point where diminishing returns aren’t an issue, but it looked like from the shape of his drawing that the diminishing returns phase and the plateau phase were quite long and that the initial step where things start to worse is still better for some period than the recommendation would have you. So my take away is my 11 hours is probably part of the group he’s talking to, but probably not what the data is agreeing with and that there are some anecdotes that show highly fit people with illness, but I would ask if that is not just representative of the population and not based on their exercise. It’s definitely a good discussion, but I didn’t see anything too alarming in there.
