Tag Archives: cycling

Fun in the Sun Cycling for a Good Cause

What is greater than cycling for a good cause?  I don’t know either.  Patients excel in riding the recumbent trike for exercise and to ride for a cause is the frosting on an already excellent cake. I look forward to see a few riding tomorrow…fun in the sun!

Saturday, 4 June 2011, watch Bremerton Mayor Patty Lent ride tandem escorted by Westsound Cycling Club’s Dan Austad during Saturday’s American Red Cross Lifecycle festivities at Evergreen Park, Bremerton.  (Addition 10:23pm:  Just learned that Port Orchard’s Mayor Lary Coppola will attend – maybe riding a recumbent trike????  )

http://www.active.com/cycling/bremerton-wa/american-red-cross-life-cycle-bremerton-2011

7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Evergreen Park, Bremerton, Kitsap County, WA

1400 Park Avenue

$15-$40 (T-Shirt Optional)

Whether you want a century challenge or an easy touring family ride, there is something for everyone at Life Cycle Bremerton!

Proceeds from this event benefit the American Red Cross in West Puget Sound.

City of Bremerton Parks and Recreation, Mayor Patty Lent, American Red Cross West Sound and the West Sound Cycling Club invite you to explore the artistic surroundings, green parks and breathtaking waterfront vistas and mountain views of Bremerton and its surrounding area.

Things to Do and See

Plan an overnight stay on the beautiful Kitsap Peninsula http://www.visitkitsap.com/

The ride choices: A three mile ‘Ride with the Mayor’, ten mile ‘Family Ride’, forty mile ‘Northern Route’, sixty mile ‘All Cities Ride’ and ‘100-Mile Century Challenge’. The routes begin and end at picturesque Rotary Evergreen Park.

Rest Stops

Organized rest stops are scattered throughout the 101 mile route at parks around the beautiful Kitsap Peninsula: Evergreen Park, Blueberry Park and Kitsap Lake Park in Bremerton; Long Lake Park and Port Orchard Marina Park in Port Orchard and Muriel Williams Pavilion on the beautiful Poulsbo waterfront.

Details

Registration includes ride support, well-supported stops with snacks and drinks, a souvenir button and an opportunity to win great raffle prizes. Registered participants are invited to join us for a cookout after the ride. Kids under 12 ride free with a registered adult. Souvenir T-shirts are available for $15 with your pre-registration. (The price will be $20 at the event)

Kids’ Stuff

There will be a Children Bicycle Rodeo, for ages 5-12 marshaled by the American Red Cross volunteers. Free bike helmet and fitting for the first 60 participants during the Bicycle Rodeo.

Janet Heath

Register by calling 360.478.7681. You may also register at the event between 7:00 a.m. and 12: 30 p.m.

Westsound Cycling Club members may ride or volunteer by calling Tim Baker (360) 340-5944 at LCB.

Thanks for reading… Sharon O’Hara

My cycling safety flag banner made by Chuck O’Hara, painted by Bremerton rosemaller, Lois Clauson

Is Cycling Healthier for a Lung Patient with Right Heart Failure Than Walking?

I am a patient with questions and one of them is:

Is cycling better or healthier for a lung patient with Right Heart Failure than walking.

Based on medical terminology I clearly don’t understand – it APPEARS to say so to this patient…based on the paper I blogged on and the paper I found using the Google search for:  oxyhemoglobin desaturation.

“Oxyhemoglobin desaturation can be quite severe and can even lead to damage to vital organs, particularly the heart, to the point of being life-threatening.3”

Identifying Sleep Disordered Breathing in Neuromuscular Disorder Patients

by Joshua Benditt, MD, and Louis Boitano, MS, RRT

***

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is one thing, add bone on bone left hip and a person has to really fight to move it and I’m doing in the pool what I can’t do ‘on land’ easily – leg up and loosen and build muscle around that hip so I can ride again.  One day the muscling should support it and make it comfortable enough to ride my recumbent trikes again.

I KNOW it will work because when I had physical therapy last year, the personable and talented Anna Marx at Kitsap Physical Therapy in Silverdale put me on a machine I could not only tolerate – a recumbent elliptical – over time I actually loosened up enough where I could and did – close my eyes and built speed and a rhythm on that machine – exactly like riding a recumbent trike, a horse…without the pain of the bone on bone left hip!

I’ve begun working out four days a week with an amazing professional swim instructor and I hope and expect to regain much of the function I lost.  There is nothing to lose and everything to gain. It appears to be working – a ‘study’ in itself.  More later.

That said, what about my question:

Is cycling better or healthier for a lung patient with right heart failure than walking?

************************

BACKGROUND: Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exhibit greater oxyhemoglobin desaturation during walking than with cycling. The purpose of this investigation was to investigate differences in ventilatory responses and gas exchange as proposed mechanisms for this observation.

http://pugetsoundblogs.com/copd-and-other-stuff/2011/02/08/a-new-study-for-copders-mechanism-of-greater-oxygen-desaturation-during-walking-compared-with-cycling-in-copd/

Read more: http://pugetsoundblogs.com/copd-and-other-stuff/#ixzz1DTzzcGaW

Read more: http://pugetsoundblogs.com/copd-and-other-stuff/#ixzz1DTzg8nOT

“Oxyhemoglobin desaturation can be quite severe and can even lead to damage to vital organs, particularly the heart, to the point of being life-threatening.3”

Identifying Sleep Disordered Breathing in Neuromuscular Disorder Patients

by Joshua Benditt, MD, and Louis Boitano, MS, RRT

Joshua Benditt, MD, is a professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle. He is also director of respiratory care services, Northwest Assisted Breathing Center, University of Washington Medical Center. He can be reached at benditt@u.washington.edu. Louis Boitano, MS, RRT, is codirector of the Northwest Assisted Breathing Center, University of Washington Medical Center. Boitano can be reached at boitano@u.washington.edu.

The symptoms of sleep disordered breathing in patients with neuromuscular disease can be subtle, but once recognized and treated, symptoms can improve.

http://www.sleepreviewmag.com/issues/articles/2007-01_03.asp

I don’t know how this all fits together for us – I also have sleep apnea and sleep with a bi-pap and concentrator bleed in to the bi-pap.

More later… Sharon O’Hara

A New Study for COPDers: Mechanism of Greater Oxygen Desaturation during Walking Compared with Cycling in COPD.

Do COPDers desaturate more walking than they do cycling?  I’ve said ever since I discovered the recumbent trike existed that the recumbent trike was God’s gift to the COPDer…indeed, anyone with physical limitations.

Pedaling around the bay from the ferry on Whidbey Island with the American Lung Association of Washington’s Trek Tri Island three day cycling trip one early morning a few years ago was the first time I felt ‘normal’ again in about 7 years and the same length of time I’d gone anywhere overnight since a stay in Harrison Medical Center in 1997.

In those days I didn’t have a hip problem so I could walk without a problem other than shortness of breath but the recumbent trike lets us take our comfortable seat everywhere we pedal and stop whenever we need to take a break.  It also builds the legs muscles better and faster (my opinion) than walking and it is sure more fun and faster.

My point is wondering what the following study means in practical terms – to us, the patient.  I am one of those who do not desaturate enough for oxygen while awake.

Is cycling less strain or easier on our lungs than walking?

************

“Chest. 2011 Jan 27. [Epub ahead of print]

Mechanism of Greater Oxygen Desaturation during Walking Compared with Cycling in COPD.

Mahler DA, Gifford AH, Waterman LA, Ward J, Machala S, Baird JC.

1 Section of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, NH, USA.

BACKGROUND: Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exhibit greater oxyhemoglobin desaturation during walking than with cycling. The purpose of this investigation was to investigate differences in ventilatory responses and gas exchange as proposed mechanisms for this observation.

METHODS: Arterial blood gases and lactate were measured in 12 patients with COPD (age, 68 ± 6 years) during incremental treadmill and cycle exercise. The primary outcome to assess the ventilatory response to exercise was the partial pressure of alveolar oxygen (P(A)O(2)). The primary outcome to assess impairment in exercise gas exchange was the difference between partial pressures of alveolar and arterial oxygen (P(a)O(2)) (AaPO(2)).

RESULTS: P(a)O(2) was significantly lower at peak exercise for treadmill walking (51.4 ± 6.8 mmHg) compared with cycling (60.4 ± 10.7 mmHg) (p = 0.002). The initial increase in P(A)O(2) with cycling occurred prior to the onset of the anaerobic threshold. At peak exercise, P(A)O(2) was significantly higher with cycling compared with walking (p = 0.004). The anaerobic threshold occurred at a lower VO(2) during cycling than walking (p = 0.001), and peak lactate levels were higher with cycling (p = 0.019). With progressive exercise, AaPO(2) increased similarly during treadmill and cycle exercise.

CONCLUSIONS: The higher P(A)O(2) during cycling minimized the magnitude of oxyhemoglobin desaturation compared with walking. The enhanced respiratory stimulation during cycling appears due to an initial neurogenic process, possibly originating in receptors of exercising muscles, and a subsequent earlier onset of anaerobic metabolism with higher lactate levels during cycling.”

PMID: 21273296 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21273296?dopt=AbstractPlus

***************

I do not have a financial interest in any bike company including the recumbent trike.

More later…. Sharon O’Hara

A Chance to Vote for Poulsbo

As a person with lung disease forced to ride in traffic spewing poisonous toxins and inhaling it, I care about clean air and safe places to ride my recumbent trike.

In my opinion, if we don’t provide safe, useful cycling, walking paths for our people, our people will gradually spiral into a people not moving far from the TV or computer and aging with multiple ailments costing us far more in health care than the original cost of the needed trails.

To those who don’t think vehicle exhaust is dangerous to health, would you stand next to the exhaust of a running car in a closed area?

Thanks to Linda Berry-Maraist, an alert city council woman in Poulsbo, it’s not too late for us to weigh in on the survey. www.cityofpoulsbo.com

Thanks also to our alert and fast moving West Sound Bike club members…

More later… Sharon O’Hara

> From: Linda Berry-Maraist
>
> Subject: Survey closing Wed: Fjord Drive Trail
>
> Hi Trail committee,
> I just returned from vacation and discovered that there has been a
survey on the City website, asking whether we should keep Fjord.
drive one way (from 6th to Hostmark) and make the other lane a bike
trail/path or restore Fjord as it was. The City Council is scheduled
to vote on this tomorrow (Wed) and I believe the decision will be
largely based on the responses to this survey.Currently slightly more
people favor returning Fjord to 2-way, which would preclude the
potential bike/ped. trail.
>
> I hope you will consider taking the survey www.cityofpoulsbo.com ,
coming to the Council meeting at 7:30 or sending an email (link on
website). I am very concerned that the timing of this decision,
before the trail plan is even presented, will make the potential
extension of the Liberty Bay trail bike route south from downtown,
far less likely.
>
> The good news I heard today is that it looks like the City’s grant
proposal to do the engineering for the waterfront trail extension to
Fish Park, has cleared the big hurdle, received a high score in the
grant process and is likely to be approved for funding in September!
> Linda
>
> Linda Berry-Maraist, City Council Position 1, City of Poulsbo
lberrymaraist@cityofpoulsbo.com

Recumbent Trikes and Good Health Hand in Hand

The recumbent trike is God’s gift to the physically challenged.

The 3-day Trek Tri Island bike trip with the American Lung Association of Washington a few years ago was the first time I had left the house overnight in 7 years. Not since COPD and then Other Stuff began to hit.  Pedaling around the bay from the Port Townsend/Keystone ferry toward Oak Harbor was the first time in 7 years I felt normal again. The recumbent trike set me free.

The Mason county couple in the “What is COPD” tee, ride for good health,  fun and exercise. 

Hey, Trikes are Fun!


He doesn’t let Hip Dysplasia in both hips stop him from moving but at a much slower pace than his wife. His wife is a fast walker challenging herself to move even faster.

Until he began riding the recumbent trike delta, (two wheels in back), she had to move slowly, at her husband’s pace or he quickly was left behind.

I was told the recumbent trike gives him the edges to not only keep up with her; he challenges her to move those hips even faster. The recumbent trike lets them exercise together for good health in fun and harmony.

I took a video of them…unedited…so you can see how they ride.

A family affair… the gentleman on the delta is only 92.

Following are more photos. My mother’s first time on a bike in about 75 years when she learned to ride the delta at 88 years old.

Ask your doctor about riding the recumbent trike for exercise and fun adding to living a quality life and follow her/his recommendations. Check with the local bike shops and bike clubs for further information or ask here on COPD and Other Stuff.

For COPDers – muscle utilizes oxygen better than flab and the legs are the largest muscles in the body. The bike is a great form of exercise and the recumbent trike can be a kinder, gentler form of cycling…the comfort mode…or not.

The West Sound Bike Club may have two recumbent trikes to show on the 18th. One trike is a delta with an electric assist. The other is a tadpole. Swing by the booth and check them out.

WEST SOUND CYCLING CLUB AUG, 2010
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
PRESIDENT Lee Derror 360 271-4838
lderror2@yahoo.com
VICE PRESIDENT Don Czeczok 360 405-1834
dczeczok@wavecable.com
TREASURER Laurie Clayton
SECRETARY Roberta Berry 360 638-1685
beeryra@centurytel.net
RIDE COORDINATOR Tim Baker 360 340-5944
rides@westsoundcycling.com
bakertj@hotmail.com
Freewheeler: Frank Lane 253 857-6044
editor@westsoundcycling.com

Tour de Kitsap: tdk@westsoundcycling.com
WSCC website: www.westsoundcycling.com

Wed. 8/18 11:00am – 6:00pm – Thurs. 8/19/2010 0800 – 2:00pm

West Sound Safety and Health Expo 2010 Free!

Kitsap Conference Center & Bremerton Boardwalk
100 Washington Avenue
Bremerton, WA 98337
Contact: Linda Fulton 360.473.5918

LOCAL BIKE SHOPS

More than one of the following bike shops may sell and service trikes.

BI Cycle Shop 206-842-6413
Classic Cycle 206-842-9191
Kitsap Key and Bike Shop 360-373-6133
Olympic Bike and Skate 360-895-2127
One Way Down Biking 360-633-6649
Rainier Cycle Sports 253-756-2117
Silverdale Cyclery 360-692-5508 (Sells and services trikes)

Gregg’s Greenlake Cycle
The free clinic will start at 6:30pm and go until around 7:30pm. There will be light refreshments provided.
info@greggscycles.com or call (206) 523-1822 ext. 119

The following URL contains the most cycling URL information of any blog I’ve seen.

http://www.recumbentblog.com/ Scroll down on the right until you find Dealers.

More later…. Sharon O’Hara