Posted on this before but thought I’d take another crack at it. Been on a long journey to try and figure out why cycling wrecks me rather than builds me up. Background: I’m 47. For years I just bike commuted and didn’t pay attention to diet or training. Then for about 3 years I “trained” but did it the wrong way and buried myself in fatigue borderline overtraining.
I’ve since taken a 2 year break from regular cycling. I’ve ridden here and there - but for the most part just less than 30 min very easy rides.
Any time I would go past 30 min or try to ride a route that was 45 to 60 min I would have trouble sleeping and be heavily fatigued the next day even though I intentionally kept my average HR in Zone2 with occasional bursts into Zone3.
What I can’t understand is why any kind of ride that goes a bit long and averages zone 2 or 3 (I try to never go above HR150 these days) I cannot fall asleep - or my sleep is just crazy disturbed and I wake up with what feels like a hangover.
A week ago I broke out the indoor trainer and have been doing very light rides. Yesterday I did my first 60 minute ride on the trainer and intentionally kept it super light. My avg HR was 110 with max of 147. Even though I was super tired at the end of the night I tossed and turned all night again. Pretty wrecked today, tired, unable to focus, lack of any energy. Damn I remember feeling wrecked after a 50 mile ride, but an hour?
My nutrition is pretty good. Been to see a couple docs. Had my heart looked at and put on a machine. Met with sleep doc who couldn’t find anything. All my vitals are on point. I keep coming back to the same conclusion - there is just something about intense cardio that my body may never be ok with. Really miss cycling - anyone got any words of advice or health roads that I’m not seeing?
A thought ;
Your body is telling you it hated what you did before. Now you jogged its memory and it’s telling you do not do it again. You need to be harsh and tell it you won’t put up with such nonsense. In a week or two if it’s not too stubborn it should give up and get in line.
Try get the rides complete early in the morning. Years ago I would do intense workouts 7-8pm and would be kicking the sheets all night and be wrecked in work the next day.
Now I workout 5:30am and I have the entire day to get the cortisol levels down in time for bed.
What’s your overal physical condition?
I am also 47 and many years of sitting, bad food, creeping overweight, stress and way to little exercise can leave one pretty wrecked.
If the above sounds anything like you, you need to re-condition yourself. Slowly. Eventually over years. Eating healthy, no alk, no smoke, no stress, losing weight and ramping up exercise very carefully.
Do you do any other cardio exercise - running, swimming, cross country skiing, etc? Do you have the same response?
I agree with @arthurdaly - try riding first thing in the morning. I have found it difficult to get good sleep when I do cardio in the afternoon / evening. Lifting seems to be fine at the end of the day, but cardio impacts my sleep.
I’m going to jump to conclusions and say this is one that the TR forum isn’t equipped to deal with. Reviewing bloodwork and a real chat with a Dr is likely the first step.
Sometimes I’m tired after an hour ave hr 110 with a spike to 147. Usually not but when the stars align it can happen and I’ve trained consistently since 1993. I guess I’m saying depending on your max hr, that might be a fair bit of work. What IF (intensity factor) was the ride or what is your ftp and ave power for the ride?
+1 on the professional help suggestion. I would also suggest a more detailed panel than the standard blood tests. There may be something hidden going on, a typical blood test checks 20 or we so markers. I know there is skepticism about the hair samples for mineral deficiency but it led to some pretty big discoveries for my daughter who had issues. Or is there depression, or something else?
47 is not young but it is not too old either. You should be able to ride the bike. Not like you used to maybe, but definitely you should be able to. Don’t give up on figuring it out
As others mentioned, it sounds like you need to see a doc, get an extensive blood panel, and do some more research with some health professionals. Just for reference, I’m about a decade older than you and doing the low volume Gran Fondo plan with an added long ride on the weekend and strength training 2 days a week and I feel fine. I’m not saying this to one-up you in any way, I’m just saying that at your age you should still be able to ride and train in a reasonable manner without feeling trashed.
I hope you find the root cause. In the meantime, don’t stress over the bike. It will be there when you’re ready.
I’m in two minds about this. One one hand I think you might simply be more unfit than you care to admit to yourself. How often is “riding here and there”? How easy is “very light”?
Do you do any other exercise, run, walk the dog, or do you have a physical job?
Also a HR of 147 is tempo territory for me, and an hour at tempo isn’t easy when you’re untrained. Remember also that HR lags quite a bit, so if it creeps up to that, it means you’ve been going harder than “easy” for a while. It’s also often hard to judge an effort when you’re un/de-trained - think of beginners that smash one workout and then can’t do another. Especially if you had a good level of fitness in the past - the brain thinks you’re still the same as when you did this last time, but often the body does not agree.
If you think this could be the case, I’d make a very simple, progressive training plan and try to stick to it. For example, if you feel you can ride 30 minutes easy without excessive fatigue, start with 3x 30 min a week and add 10 min every week (3 x 40, 3 x 50, 3x 60). Resist any temptation to increase power at the same time, keep it very easy and just add time. Your goal is to finish every session with something left in the tank, fresh enough to sleep and to do the next workout a day or two later. It might be that you can’t start with 30 minutes, or that adding 10 minutes is too much - adjust as neccessary, but don’t try to push anything apart from time. And keep to 3 workouts consistantely.
If that doesn’t work, or if you think you get the same type of excessive fatigue from all other forms of exercise, go and talk to another doctor. Doctors don’t all know the same things, and sometimes you need to get lucky to find one who’a got the right idea of what is up.
There’s a lot in that question and this is not the whole answer. However don’t underestimate how difficult it is to restart. I tend to assume that a 45 min ride is insignificant, but when I’ve had a long layoff, in fact that is harder than a 4 hour ride when I’m in shape. I get all these weird sensations and think there’s something wrong, when in fact it’s just I’m not used to it. It comes back quick though.
This is my conclusion on this limited information. The OP doesn’t know what his zone 2 heart rate is. The OP probably needs to ride at 100-120bpm until they can ride the 45+ minutes without feeling zonked out for the rest of the day. Just slowly build endurance over time.
Continue on your journey through the medical system. You have been quite active and something might be wrong.
Start small: do 2 x 30 minutes at low intensity. Keep your heart rate below 130 bpm, that is, low Z2, and see what happens. If things don’t feel right, I’d stop and redouble my efforts to get me checked out by medical professionals.
If you can manage this stress, I’d sprinkle in some harder efforts. Keep it short and listen to your body. If something is wrong with your body, you need to fix it.
Otherwise, slowly increase the stress.
I’d want to stay consistent in terms of the days and times you train.
i agree with taking it down to a HR of 120. 147 is actually fairly intense.
what you’re describing sounds like how I feel when I am dehydrated and low on electrolytes. This could especially be true if you are someplace warm and/or dry.