Nice to finally warm up a bit, with more on the way! Light, not heavy, base layer, no need to bring a wind breaker, could have even used lighter weight leg warmers. Still electric glove time though; anything below 68F is an issue there.

Myself, Kevin and Tom C, whom we hadn’t seen for a while, at the start. That’s two times in two weeks it wasn’t just us! Tom claims to have not been riding until recently, but I’ve never really seen him out of shape. I did get to spend a bit of time on Kings with him though, as Kevin was definitely pretending to BE in shape, posting a 26-something time. That, to me, is flying!

The context thing. My pulmonologist doesn’t think my breathing issues are that big a deal, because my total delivery of oxygen to my body is 140% of normal (VO2 Max they call it), but that’s because I work my butt off, breathing very hard and fast. My lung efficiency is appallingly low, and it’s pretty obvious that, if I let myself get out of shape, I’d be in a bad way.

Riding with Tom C gave me a chance to see how I fare against others close to my own age. Riding with “kids” (anyone below 50), you could easily argue there’s a reason I’m out of breath and they’re not. But Tom isn’t a “kid”; when I asked his age, he told me 63 & 2/3rds years old. So not too far from my 67.

And, riding with him up Kings, trying to keep up, his breathing was dead quiet. Couldn’t even be recorded. While mine…

So I’m going to send the pulmonologist a copy of the youtube posted here and see if I can get some traction, some interest, in why I sound like a steam engine while everyone else can be yakking away, no issues breathing.