Biking hills, bottoming out, ultra beat after

Hi,
I've be road biking about 20 miles of hills pretty hard once or twice a week and as much as 80 miles a week max. Unpredictably, sometimes I hit a hill and just can't push the climb as normal and feel weak and slight nausea and minor light-headed as if you just did a sprint. Other times I blast through the same part. Sometimes it seems linked to poor sleep the night before or heavy deadline work stress the day of ride. Last night was one such occasion and I felt beyond tired when I returned home, like I could NOT just down a cup of joe and go if I even wanted to. Totally wasted and groggy. Should I be keeping an eye on my pulse when exercising for any weirdness or is there anything else I should look out for? This only seems to happen occasionally and often with some other circumstances such as it's freezing cold out, I didn't sleep well or am returning from an injury or was overworked already. I have an ejection ratio that is on the lowest range of normal, not so bad, according to doctors. Thanks for any advice as always.

3 Comments

This may help...

by admin - 2012-04-18 09:04:40

I had similar experiences in the past. The upper rate of my pacer was set at 140 bpm. When my heart rate got that high, my Medtronic Adapta pacemaker was programed so only every second beat was sent to my ventricle. This caused my heart rate to suddenly drop from 140 bpm to 70 bpm. It felt like I was hitting a brick wall. My legs would turn to rubber and I had to stop exercising.

My device has since be reprogramed to more gradually lower my heartrate when I hit my upper limit (also increased to 150 bpm). This is something you may want to discuss with you doctor. Good luck!

Blake

Rate Response

by bjbumblebee - 2012-04-18 11:04:18

I just recently had a conversation with my surgeon regarding the rate response because I was in a vehicle traveling on rough roadway and my pacemaker rate was racing as if I was working out. In any case, my doctor stated that the increase was because of the bouncing and my pacemaker reacted as if I was exercising. He stated that some activities like walking up stairs on "bike riding" do not trigger the rate response and that some people actually figure this out on their own and "tap" on the generator to get it speed up. So, yes maybe you should keep an eye on your pulse rate and see if maybe the rate response is just not kicking in.

Thanks, I'll check with Guidant on the specs

by tutu - 2012-04-18 11:04:26

Blake, thanks for that info. That sounds like a likely scenario by the feel of it. I had the tech and doctor bump it up past 140 but I think it might have only been at 150 and I know I've easily past that on treadmill, to high 150s even though I'm 43. I don't believe I feel so great when I hit a bit high on the treadmill either. Not as bad as with the bike because I'm trying keep going to make it up the hill... Thanks again. Will look into that.

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