Very Scary Moment Last Night

[aces_up1504]

Was part of a very scary and serious incident last night. I went down to join a local cycling club last night and have a beginners session on the velodrome that has been built in Liverpool. There was about 5 newcomers to the session.

One guy who was in his mid 50's and overweight, we did 3 laps of the circuit at around 14mph and he was blowing a little, he came to rest next to me on the boards. A minute later he collapsed over me, suffering a massive heart attack.

He had no pulse and no breathing, thankfully due to the trained 1st aiders at the club they were able to perform CPR before a defib was brought down and was shocked 4 times before the paramedics arrived 10 mins later. 2 further shocks he was eventually brought into a steady heart beat.

I have no doubt if was not for the actions of the people present he would have died.

I think its important to realise if you are new to cycling and looking to get "fit" and your out of shape how important it is to go and see the doctor first to have your health accessed first.

I am not sure of his condition at the moment, but was very scary for all concerned.

 

[MarkF]

Thankfully trained staff were there.

I am 50 and play 5 a-side in a veterans league, twice blokes have had heart attacks in the shower after a game, both were 50+ and overweight and in both games I was looking at them, as they puffed, wheezed and reddened, thinking "You shouldn't be playing pal".

 

[HLaB]

I wish him all the best. I would say however, age is no barrier (fittness might be one you need to overcome) but some folk 20+ years older than me (in their 60s) can kick my butt when it comes to cycling.

 

[aces_up1504]

I wish him all the best. I would say however, age is no barrier (fittness might be one you need to overcome) but some folk 20+ years older than me (in their 60s) can kick my butt when it comes to cycling.

Agree was getting well and truely scalped by people in there 60's in the longer ride i did last weekend.

 

[Simba1off]

I have not been on a bike for sometime due to a back injury but last night I went for a short ride around 15mins. Also I'm 50ys old and around 19.5 stone no light weight. After returning from ride my arms were shaking felt slight nauses and sweated like nobodys bussiness and it must have took 20mins for my body to settle back down. It does worry me that I could over do it and suffering a heart attack is always in the back of my mind. I will keep on doing 15mins until my body says I can do more in that the recovery time will start to get shorter and me not too tired afterwards. Only then will I start to increase my distance and stammina.

 

[HLaB]

I have not been on a bike for sometime due to a back injury but last night I went for a short ride around 15mins. Also I'm 50ys old and around 19.5 stone no light weight. After returning from ride my arms were shaking felt slight nauses and sweated like nobodys bussiness and it must have took 20mins for my body to settle back down. It does worry me that I could over do it and suffering a heart attack is always in the back of my mind. I will keep on doing 15mins until my body says I can do more in that the recovery time will start to get shorter and me not too tired afterwards. Only then will I start to increase my distance and stammina.

Keep at it, in the long run though your heart/body will be stronger etc and you'll be less likely to have health problems, good luck

 

[ianrauk]

Blimey - Poor fella.
A case of too much too soon.

 

[Gravity Aided]

It's good that you have the will to get out there and ride, Simba 1 Off . If you think that 15 minutes is too much, try 7.5 minutes for now, and see if that doesn't help you. Slowly increase your time and effort. Start with what you are comfortable with, and increase your endurance and speed very gradually. A health check may be a good idea as well. An ignored health problem can be like a bad tire. It will inevitably give way at the worst possible moment.

 

[RWright]

I hope the guy cycling will be ok. The people that helped him before the paramedics got there are heroes IMO.

I should really take a course in emergency first aid. In the boy scouts we learned about doing chest compressions for heart attacks and mouth to mouth resuscitation for drowning victims among other things. That was a long time ago, I have never done any of it since. Some things could well have changed since then too. I am not sure I could be as cool under the pressure of a bad situation as I could be if I took a refresher course. Having the defib there also was probably a big plus for the guy.

 

[steve52]

56 fit and heathy here 200k no prob and can spin at 180+ phew lucky me

 

[Longshot]

It's not so much age that's the problem - it's about not taking on too much, too soon. There's no reason that a guy in his 50s can't cane it round a cycle track but I'm pretty sure that it shouldn't be attempted by an unfit, new-to-cycling guy in his 50s.

It's been something I've been nervous about in my 40s as over the past three years (after years of doing bugger all) I have done the Three Peaks Challenge, the London to Brighton overnight ride and, soon, the Ride London Surrey 100. I am training for the event but am trying to do so in such a way that is manageable. Perhaps I'm not working myself hard enough at times and progress is steady rather than spectacular but I'm slightly scared of overdoing it in a bid to perform at a level at which I'm risking blowing a gasket.

Neil - sorry to hear about that and glad he pulled through!

 

[malcermie]

'er indoors is always reminding me I'm 68 not 28! But as long as you know your limitations and don't try to keep up with the Tour de France guys cycling is great fun, I did the London to Brighton this year in 4hrs. 15mins. and climbed the Beacon no problem just took it steady.

 

[DRHysted]

I hope the guy cycling will be ok. The people that helped him before the paramedics got there are heroes IMO.

I should really take a course in emergency first aid. In the boy scouts we learned about doing chest compressions for heart attacks and mouth to mouth resuscitation for drowning victims among other things. That was a long time ago, I have never done any of it since. Some things could well have changed since then too. I am not sure I could be as cool under the pressure of a bad situation as I could be if I took a refresher course. Having the defib there also was probably a big plus for the guy.

A lot has changed over the years regarding 1st Aid, it really is a very useful skill to have, and I highly advise everyone to learn.
The defib is a truely amazing piece of kit, a fully automated AED (like we have a work) are so easy to use that a 5 year old could manage it. Most important of all they save lives, getting a defib unit on a person within 10 minutes increases their chance of recovery greatly (I can't remember the statistic which is quite poor as my refresher was only last April).

Basically my point if you are not 1st aid trained, go and do it, you probably will never need it, but it is a tool that can have important uses.

 

[Ticktockmy]

I have not been on a bike for sometime due to a back injury but last night I went for a short ride around 15mins. Also I'm 50ys old and around 19.5 stone no light weight. After returning from ride my arms were shaking felt slight nauses and sweated like nobodys bussiness and it must have took 20mins for my body to settle back down. It does worry me that I could over do it and suffering a heart attack is always in the back of my mind. I will keep on doing 15mins until my body says I can do more in that the recovery time will start to get shorter and me not too tired afterwards. Only then will I start to increase my distance and stammina.

If you were just huffing and puffing and sweating after your 15 min ride, then that would be not too bad and can be normal for most cyclist pushing themselves, but feeling Nauses and taken 20 minutes to recover, I would get to the Doc have a check up, better safe than sorry. A help towards your training would be to get a heart beat monitor.
The HBM will help to ensure you don't work your heart too hard or indeed to under work it during your training ride. Your target heart rate, should be between 60 and 95% of your Maximum.
To know your target heart rate you will need to know your maximum. There is some information on this site: http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/article/heart-rate-monitor-training-for-cyclists-28838
But do a web search as plenty of information out there.

 

[Simba1off]

Hi
Not wishing to hijack this thread but thanks for the advice.
I hope that the gentleman is recovering well and be back on his feet soon, and cycling again before too long.