Track Cyclist Hyun: A story of resiliency

Hyun is another wonderful friend to all of us at The Mountain Exp. It has been through Hyun’s support and partnership that we have been able to develop a small but decent product catalog to support the cycling community. He literally has helped us get rolling as a start-up and helped us survive those initial BETA months in November and December of 2023 and for that we will forever be grateful!

Originally a lawyer from the Boston area, Hyun moved out to the Pacific Northwest with his family in the mid-90s and changed his career to become a senior program manager in the technical industry holding various roles at major tech companies in the area over the years.

Hyun had, like most of us, grown up riding bicycles as a kid but started racing on the road in high school in 1987.  After moving to Seattle in 1996, he discovered the velodrome track at Marymoor Park in Redmond Washington – The Jerry Baker Memorial Velodrome. Hyun was intrigued as he’d never ridden a fixed gear, no brake road bike on a highly banked track. At the time of this writing there are only 21 velodrome tracks in the entire United States.  We are very fortunate to have the Jerry Baker Memorial Velodrome in our own backyard. Hyun did some investigating and talked with people at the track, bought a track bike, began training in earnest, registered with USA cycling, and began racing. Hyun was enjoying the strength and endurance the sport provides through the years as good stress relief from the high-pressure tech industry and was obtaining decent results for his age group. In October of 2018, life handed Hyun a major scare when he suffered a major cardiac arrest. In Hyun’s words…“This occurred at a cyclocross event in Burien where a former UW cycling team mate saw I had collapsed and started CPR until two EMT trained competitors also stopped to render aid.” 

Hyun was absolutely sure that this event would keep him out of racing in the future. Hyun received initial emergency care at the Highline Medical Center in Burien. He was then transferred to University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle Washington where he received exceptional car. For the entire month after the event he literally had a fear of moving much less riding again all out on a velodrome track in future races.

In November of 2018, just a month after the event, he was released from the hospital and met with his cardiologist.  He was shocked to hear from his doctor that he should be ready for pre-season in May of 2019. This was only 8 months removed from an event that literally brought him to his knees. How in the heck was he going to be back in the saddle and ready to race in May???   What Hyun learned was that staying active was the best form of rehab. 

Let the rehab begin: Hyun was put on a 16-week cardiac rehab program at Evergreen Medical Center where he was closely monitored and session by session would gradually increase intensity. Hyun followed both the rehab regimen and dietary recommendations of his doctors, which entailed a great deal of education on label reading, cutting out trans fats, focusing on a more vegetable based diet and reducing stress.

At home, Hyun’s doctors advised to keep below 160W of output power, and maintain a heart rate below 140 to start and then gradually increased. Only when he was at the center would they ask him to push it and increase intensity.

Hyun credits some great technology tools that helped him through this period.

• Wahoo bike computer and chest strap heart monitor
• 4iii crank based power meter to measure watt output
• Favero Assiamo Uno pedal based power meter for the track
• Zwift Bicycling Online Training Application – beyond providing an gamified visual environment for training and cartoon avatar, it also tracks power output and heart rate, and provided excellent data reporting to share with his medical staff.

With these tools, Hyun was able to collect data to analyze exertion through heart rate and power output through a strain gaged power meter. This enabled analysis of when Hyun should back off to recover and when it was Ok to push harder.  In April of 2019, after a stress test at UW Eastside Cardiology, Hyun was given the greenlight to compete again.  On a monthly basis, Hyun sends in heart rate telemetry from monthly ramp stress tests and racing to his cardiologist to see if there are any areas of concern.  Hyun trained consistently through the spring and won his first “real” race of the year and podium’ d for third overall for the evening.  In August of 2019, Hyun had his personal best time for a 200-meter TT and won his age group track sprint championships.

We at The Mountain Exp are hyper focused on the overall health benefits of getting outdoors. When we asked Hyun what the benefits of his training and racing have been since the life changing event in October of 2018, his response was: “It feels great to feel alive and not be afraid to live”. Hyun mentioned that his racing results have actually improved over the past 6 years since the event, winning a couple of state championships for his age group and better results in general. He mentioned that there is a larger % of cardiac survivors involved in cycling than the general public is aware as there are clear physical and cardiovascular benefits to the sport. Hyun is living proof.

Hyun is a true inspiration to all of us at The Mountain Exp and we all have nothing but huge respect for his warrior like attitude and capabilities. We are super proud that he is a part of our community and that he has been willing to share his story with all of us and all of you.

Along with tracking “The Peak Baggers” mountaineering group via our blog as we announced in are last post, we are happy to partner with Hyun and will be tracking his training, racing schedule and results through the rest of 2024 and likely beyond.

We encourage our community to check back often as we are positive it is going to be an interesting ride!

Hyun training with intensity, wearing his new Delicate Fox Bomber Cycling gloves he purchased through our store!