Or indeed anyone who rides super hard.

I’ve done only a few races in the past but this season I have joined up with the local club with the intention of doing the complete provincial XC series.
As well as that I am now neck deep in the competitive world of thursday night 10 mile TT’s

My question is this.

When I race, and race hard, In the few hours after the race I feel a little chesty. Like there is a wee bit of phlem or something sitting at the top of my lungs. What gives? I certainly am not carrying a flu or chest infection.
Is this normal?

It was particularly noticable after sundays opening round of the XC series which was furiously fast racing and I felt like I was in the red pretty much from start til finish.

I would normally ride on the road and off road at a decent pace but clearly when racing I am able to lift it a little.

When I race, and race hard, In the few hours after the race I feel a little chesty. Like there is a wee bit of phlem or something sitting at the top of my lungs. What gives? I certainly am not carrying a flu or chest infection.

– standard issue – did a club TT last wednesday on the back of no training since last august. balls to the wall and my chest was on fire thursday friday – like a flu …. a whisky solved it 😀 – cold air thrashing your wind pipe i expect

Very normal. In fact if you don’t you weren’t trying hard enough.. If you can vom on your bars thats about the right amount of effort.

I get a cough for a day or so after a proper hard effort.

I think it’s irritation of the windpipe from lots of breathing in and out. Worse in cold weather.

Good stuff
At least Now I can measure how much effort I am putting out without having to spend the money on the Garmin Edge I was looking at.

I don’t get that 😥

My symptoms are wanting to puke, a feeling like my bowels want to open and a bit dizzy. Goes within seconds though.
Only time I’ve had that was when they mowed the grass on the xc circuit at Milton Keynes, was coughing up the stuff for two days.

I did my first crit race on thursday night. HRM died on the start line, so i have no idea what heart rates i reached but more than my usual max i reckon. I coughed for an hour solidly after it, and the cough lasted until Sunday night. It hurt too, like when i had bronchitis.

Testers cough.

You’ll never go as hard in training as you do in racing, no matter how much you push it. The body can easily go several % higher in competition from the adrenaline.

It’s pretty normal, especially if you’re new to it, the body is just getting over how bloody hard you’ve made it work! It gets better. Mostly just irritation from deep/fast breathing. It’s worse on indoor tracks where there’s more dust or in dry MTB racing where loads of dust gets kicked up from the riders in front.