Training & Nutrition - Should I rest more?

I am a daily early morning rider. I have been riding for 3.5 years and have probably missed 20-30 days over this entire span. In the Summer I ride my road bike more but mainly i head out into the countryside on gravel roads on my mountain bikes and ride for 1.5 to 2 hours.

I love it so much that i hardly ever take a day off, even when i think i should. Sometimes i get pretty run down, because i am up at 6 AM and usually on the bike by 6:45, then often don't get much sleep the night before.

Anyway, today I had a reoccurring case of blurred vision, over the lunch hour. (4 hours post ride) I had this once last Spring and it is just like somebody is using a Kaleidoscope on my eyes for awhile. Today, it scared me so I called the eye doc, and he immediately got me in.

He diagnosed me with Opthalmologic Migraine, a condition where you have a migraine with no head ache but still get blurred vision. I think I am OK with the diagnosis, because I have had ZERO other symptoms. Just the blurred vision. But i did have to lie down today to get it to go away, and I have been REALLY tired lately because of Christmas parties, etc. After I laid down the vision came back to normal eventually.

I guess I am starting to wonder if my lenghty term of daily riding is catching up with me. I am nearing 23,000 miles (mainly mountain bike miles) since i started and am not sure if that is excessive. Any ideas?

I'm no expert but when you're getting that much exercise, anything less than 6 hours of sleep is just going to hurt...

You don't say what your goals are, but that's a whole lot of riding. If you're riding hard, you probably aren't giving your body enough rest time. Riding puts training stress on your body, rest allows your body to improve.

The causes of migraine are not well understoody, but stress is a contributing factor.

Ive had similar eye issues, similar diagnosis as well. So far the only thing Ive found that keeps them away is taking vitamins. Im not sure which one or ones I must be getting low on to trigger the problem but it works. May or may not be what is causing you the migraines though, worth a shot. Get more rest, nothing wrong with riding everyday, but more sleep wont hurt. 23k in 3+ years isnt anywhere near too much if your healthy.

I am a daily early morning rider. I have been riding for 3.5 years and have probably missed 20-30 days over this entire span. In the Summer I ride my road bike more but mainly i head out into the countryside on gravel roads on my mountain bikes and ride for 1.5 to 2 hours.

I love it so much that i hardly ever take a day off, even when i think i should. Sometimes i get pretty run down, because i am up at 6 AM and usually on the bike by 6:45, then often don't get much sleep the night before.

Anyway, today I had a reoccurring case of blurred vision, over the lunch hour. (4 hours post ride) I had this once last Spring and it is just like somebody is using a Kaleidoscope on my eyes for awhile. Today, it scared me so I called the eye doc, and he immediately got me in.

He diagnosed me with Opthalmologic Migraine, a condition where you have a migraine with no head ache but still get blurred vision. I think I am OK with the diagnosis, because I have had ZERO other symptoms. Just the blurred vision. But i did have to lie down today to get it to go away, and I have been REALLY tired lately because of Christmas parties, etc. After I laid down the vision came back to normal eventually.

I guess I am starting to wonder if my lenghty term of daily riding is catching up with me. I am nearing 23,000 miles (mainly mountain bike miles) since i started and am not sure if that is excessive. Any ideas?

I suffer from this too and have my whole life. I only really noticed it when I was 15 and started training for sport fairly seriously. Over time Ive tried to work out how best to link it to either my activity level, nutrition, mood etc etc The answer is you can never tell. It can come and go quite randomly. I only seem to get them bad once or twice a month. The highest correllation I have found over the years has been a link to my blood sugar levels. Ive often found ive been more likely to get the blurred vision after ive been deeply anaerobic.

Ive got to the stage that as soon as I feel one coming on I drink 500ml of water, a sugary food (lollie of somekind) and I immediately lay down and close my eyes and try to sleep for 30mins. At lot of the time I can avoid a 3-4hour episode of blurry vision if i take this action immediately i feel it happening.

Good Luck!!!! :)

23,000 miles over 3.5 years isn't really all that much.

But I wonder about those Christmas parties. How much did you drink at the party (no you don't have to answer that here if you don't want to) ... and then how much water (not coffee, not pop) did you drink between the party and the blurred vision? In other words, could you be dehydrated?

23,000 miles over 3.5 years isn't really all that much.

But I wonder about those Christmas parties. How much did you drink at the party (no you don't have to answer that here if you don't want to) ... and then how much water (not coffee, not pop) did you drink between the party and the blurred vision? In other words, could you be dehydrated?

Yeah, I did drink too much over the weekend, but I don't think it is related because that was almost 48 hours prior. Also, I realize that possibly 23,000 miles over 3.5 years isn't all that much but considering that about 19,000 miles of those were on a mountain bike on unpaved roads. I would say i probably have averaged around 13 mph on the mountain bike and probably around 17-18 on my road bike. So it is quite easy to see that I spent a lot more time pedaling on the mountain bike.

Using 19,000 miles as an example it would have taken me 1055 hours or riding to complete on the road bike and 1461 hours on the mountain bike. IOW, i would have spent 406 more hours pedaling the mountain bike as opposed to the road bike. That's amost 17 solid days of non stop pedaling MORE than on the road bike.

Anyway, back on topic, I of course could have been dehydrated, I'm not sure. I think i need to learn to listen to my body more. It isn't just the miles that i'm talking about. It's the doing it before sunrise everday which adds to the fact that i get less sleep. I never sleep in and catch up and i live a busy life with kids, work, coaching, housework etc.

Anyway, back on topic, I of course could have been dehydrated, I'm not sure. I think i need to learn to listen to my body more. It isn't just the miles that i'm talking about. It's the doing it before sunrise everday which adds to the fact that i get less sleep. I never sleep in and catch up and i live a busy life with kids, work, coaching, housework etc.

Sounds like you already know the answer.