Originally Posted by bobkat
I'm on Atenolol (1st cousin to Inderal) for mild hypertension and now rare migraine headaches. I've never noted any difference in excercise tolerance, even though my HR doesn't seem to get about 130 or so no matter what I do. Yet I keep up with everybody else and pass enough 30 year olds to keep me happy. I loved Imitrex/Zomig and all their look alikes when they came out (they worked like magic) but then had a stroke after taking one. So like all medication, beware of the rare oddball bad reaction. I think my recumbent bike keeps the headaches away and does more for BP than all the meds in the world. Tapering off now.
Atenolol was the one I used to take, but like you, max HR of 130. This did affect my riding as I normally rode at around 150, and Lack of oxygen in blood did affect me. As mentioned- my cure for a ride was to take one the night before- or even miss it out, but take one immediately after the ride.
I did not associate it at the time, but for the year I was on atenolol- I did not have one single headache- let alone a migraine.