It's Not About Chasing World Championships Anymore: Tim O'Donnell on Lung Health and Longevity

When you're training for three sports, no two days are the same. You're usually in the water first thing in the morning, then running or doing a key speed session, with longer rides either on the weekends or later in the day. Environmentally, you're fortunate to be outdoors most of the time, but you're almost always in the elements. Cars, traffic, pollutants. That's just part of training in the real world. And in the pool, you're always trying to manage air quality. Most pools are outdoors now, but I grew up swimming indoors, and air quality in those environments was always an issue.

I pretty much train exclusively outdoors now. I need to get out of the house. But what's interesting is that as I've gotten older, I notice my respiratory system more. Your diaphragm gets tighter. Everything takes longer to get moving in the morning. I started noticing that even on days I wasn't training hard, I wanted to feel like I could take a full breath. That space, just being able to breathe freely, becomes something you pay more attention to.

I'll be honest. I was skeptical. I'm always skeptical of new products. But the first time I used it, I noticed something right away. I'd describe it as a release. Like something opened up. That surprised me, because I wasn't expecting to feel much of anything on the first use.

For me, it became two things. Before hard sessions, if I knew I was doing a tempo run or a brick workout, it was always L Max first. When you're being intentional about a quality session and you want to perform, that's when it naturally pops into your head. But I also started using it in the morning even on rest days, just to get that opening feeling. It's like brushing your teeth. If it's not in the routine, it doesn't happen. So I made it part of the stack.

Actually, yes. I was preparing for Nexterra, the North American Champs, and I was doing back-to-back weekends of hard runs off the bike to shake off the rust. One weekend I did it without L Max. The second weekend, I used it. The way I felt was discernibly different. I tend to feel restriction when I'm pushing hard, especially since a heart issue I dealt with. There's scar tissue that connects the fascia from the heart to the diaphragm, so breathing freely under load is something I have to actively manage. That weekend with L Max, I had the space. I wasn't fighting my breathing pattern.

I think where I'm at in my life right now actually speaks to that better than anything I could say. I'm not chasing world championships anymore. I'm chasing my kids on the bike, and honestly, my daughter dropped me on a run yesterday. It doesn't have to be about performance. It's about maintaining your quality of life and getting the most out of what you can do physically. That applies whether you're a professional athlete or someone who just wants to feel good on a Tuesday morning run.

I've had bronchial issues my whole life. Sinus issues. I'd get bronchitis constantly growing up. Since adding L Max to my daily routine, I've been noticeably stronger in that area, less prone to both. I don't know exactly how to explain the mechanism, but I know what I feel. And that, to me, says a lot about where this product is going.