I got sick on the way home, 14 mile commute, 28 mile round-trip. At mile 4 on the way home I was belting along and wham - all energy gone. Totally without breath. I stopped, breathing hard, no pain, and it passed. So I went on and about a mile later the same thing. Scary. This went on all the way home, took me more than an hour longer to arrive.


I found that it did not take much effort and I was out of breath so, reluctantly, I went to the doctor. Long story short, lots of heart tests and the ticker is grand, healthy and fine, except - an electrical problem, out of the blue, atrial fibrillation, it just happened, no one knows why, a mystery.


Things run in threes and I developed two other unrelated health issues, one requiring surgery, so I have been out of the saddle for five months now and just this past weekend I started riding again but I am forbidden to commute the 28 mile round trip. Sigh. Still undergoing tests, heart monitors, different medications. Getting fat - getting fed up! Bad year.

I rarely ever get sick, so I haven't had this problem. However, I have had to catch a ride home due to severe thunderstorms popping up in the afternoons. I have several coworkers that I can catch a ride with if this happens. In the worst case, I guess that I could take a taxi. We have an emergency ride home program at work, as well, but I've never used it or checked into how it's done.

Nobody lives in the direction I live. They are all in the opposite direction. It's looking like my best bet would be to tough out the ride home or call the wife and wait for her arrival to save the day. Let's hope I don't get so sick that I can't ride home.

The discussion actually brings up another question I had and meant to ask. Have you noticed that now that you ride you get sick less? I have always heard that exercise will help your immune system. I was curious if you have experienced such a thing.

Works for me. I used to have a lot of allergy issues. Would start sniffling at night, and have a runny or completely blocked nose by 2 am (varied, not sure why). Since I started cycling, I have had fewer and fewer such attacks. My wife observed early on that the days I didn't cycle, I had allergy trouble. It's improved nowadays, so even if I don't cycle I don't get hit immediately - hope that continues!

Funny. Since I have started riding more and harder I have actually been having "allergy" issues. I started off with hives a few months ago and I was medicating those. Now I am having some horrible itching on my hands and feet at night. I posted a question in the Training section to see if the harder riding I am doing is contributing to histamine release and causing the itching and such. I am waiting to hear back regarding that post. I have not noticed any difference in nasal allergy issues. I tend to be a little "plugged" up no matter what and I have just learned to live with it.

I was riding 15 miles from work back to my car last year, stomach not feeling so great, made it to my car and then 10 more miles home, and then all hell broke loose. Throwing up, diarrhea and leg cramps at the same time. Almost had to go to the hospital, but managed to get some electrolytes down and eventually returned to normal. Not sure what hit me, but I won't try that again.

For some reason, this cracked me up more than I would have thought. Thanks for that!