Training & Nutrition - I just feel lousy

Sometimes when I push myself I'll finish a ride feeling tired and generally crappy. I can't really explain how I feel, but it's very different from the regular tiredness I feel after riding, say 50 miles. Normally I just take a shower, and my legs might be tired, but I feel fine.

On other occasions I feel almost sick and I drag around and it lasts for 24 hours or more.

This past Monday I rode for only 35 miles, and at 20 miles I was dragging and ready to quit. My legs were tired and I was riding into a 15 mph headwind. Unfortunately, I was a long way out so I rode home. The wind seemed to shift so I never really rode with it behind me.

In slightly over 2 hours of riding (yes, I was very slow) I drank 80 oz of gatorade and had a few fig bars and a Clif Shot. (I felt better for a while after slurping down the Clif Shot)

When I got home Monday afternoon I felt lousy, (I didn't really want to eat much, but I did force myself to eat) and Tuesday night I still felt lousy. This morning -- Wednesday -- I feel better, finally.

I didn't feel especially confused, and except for a perfectly rational occasional rage against the wind (well, it seemed perfectly rational to me at the time) I don't know that I was especially irritable.

I weigh roughly 250 so according to some calorie estimates I might burn around 1000 calories an hour, depending on how fast I ride, of course.

Did I just not eat enough? Not drink enough? What would cause the general malaise to last 24 hours?

I never felt that shaky feeling you get when you bonk. I just felt tired, and lousy.

If anyone has any ideas I'd be happy to listen.

Heck, maybe I'm just dying. :)

Wow. 40 oz. of Gatorade an hour. That's probably not a record, but that's a lot. I often do 35 mile rides without drinking or eating anything. I don't have a bottle handy, but that must have been something like 400 cal. Gatorade plus maybe another 200 eating, so about 300 cal/hr, which is right up there at the max food limit. Do you eat and drink like this on every ride, including the ones you feel good after?

Had a physical lately? You might think about a blood sugar tolerance test. They give you a pint of really disgustingly sweet stuff and then check your blood sugar to see how it fluctuates. I had that done and discovered I've got a low tolerance for low fat diets. IOW, I need a bunch of fat in my diet to even out my blood sugar, unless I'm riding, when it doesn't matter.

How many miles/week are you riding? Are you weight lifting? Do you take vitamins? Have a special diet? Any chance you're washing minerals or vitamins out with all that Gatorade (which, after all, is not real food). Sounds like some metabolic issue, anyway. Or maybe some sort of low grade infection?

Coud be diet, could be hydration, could be lots of stuff. Do you eat well the night before and the morning of the ride? Did you drinnk that 80oz of gatorade all at once, or throughout the ride? Are you used to doing rides of that length?

It could even be something weird like anemia - you just never know. If it seems weird to you you should get ti checked out.

Hmmmm . . . well, let's see. I probably don't drink that much on a regular basis. On Monday I was taking in so many calories because I was so tired. I didn't eat anything for the first hour & I doubt I'd had that much to drink. Then when I turned into the wind and realized that I was in for a long day I probably started drinking more. I stopped and bought a quart of gatorade 8 miles from home just because I was so tired. Actually, I probably drank the last 10 ounces after I finished the ride, but that's still within the general time frame.

I spent the week before the ride following the Tour de Georgia, so I'd had a week of eating in restaurants and sleeping in different beds, and I hadn't ridden my bike during that time. (except Saturday when I took a short ride of 20 miles) However the previous week I'd ridden 48 and 44 miles on Saturday and Monday and I felt fine after both of those rides.

I've got a physical coming up in a couple of months so I can mention it to the doctor then.

Perhaps, it's just a matter of being tired. I was tired before I left on the ride, and maybe being old -- 52 -- and heavier than I ought to be i just exhausted myself?

Sometimes when I push myself I'll finish a ride feeling tired and generally crappy. I can't really explain how I feel, but it's very different from the regular tiredness I feel after riding, say 50 miles. Normally I just take a shower, and my legs might be tired, but I feel fine.

Heck, maybe I'm just dying. :)

It's not uncommon to just feel off for a day or two now and then. You might be a little sick, or working a bit too hard.

You might want to try a different hydration drink. Gatorade isn't a very good one and if you're drinking 40oz of the premixed stuff, you may get an upset stomach from all the fructose. The fact that you felt a little better after the gel might indicate that the gatorade isn't working well. I like accelerade, but people vary widely in their preferences.

You might also experiment with some light solid foods. The gel is just another sugar, and you might find that something else works better. I like newtons.