Dizzy after riding
 

I’m 36, riding for about 5 seasons now pretty regularly about 3 times per week with 30-40 miles per ride. On my trainer over the winter. Typical ride: I eat some oatmeal and chocolate before riding and coffee w/milk. And drink 3-4 glasses of water. Normally just water in my bottles but lately I’m putting half OJ half water. After riding I drink 2 glasses of water and eat a muffin and then lunch. I Feel fine the WHOLE ride but whenever I get home I start to feel dizzy and nauseous for a few hours. Kinda hard to focus my eyes, and I feel sleepy. Happens pretty regularly especially when I push myself on the ride. Is this dehydration? I pee every 2 hours after riding but I don’t know if I should drink more? Add electrolytes? Train more? Thanks for any insight

It could be any number of things. I would start by checking blood pressure and heart rate. You should check your blood sugar levels. If your sugar is low after consuming that much sugar, I would get tested for insulin insensitivity. Basically, you should likely consult a doctor if the condition continues.

Doctors appointment.

Drop the Milk and OJ.

I agree with this as a start and I would wonder if you've been over-doing it (overtraining) lately.

Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, but I follow one on YouTube. He doesn't give medical advice over the phone/computer...

30 - 40 miles and just two bottles? Yeah you might be getting a little dehydrated. Especially if the temps are up in the 90's. 30 - 33 miles is about as far as I can stretch 2 bottles in the heat. I usually take another bottle or stop and fill up if I'm going more than 25 miles on a hot day.

I know that there are some that think you get adapted to using just a little water, but the military finally figured out that you don't just before the 21'st century arrived. They found out that while one gets use to the bad feeling, their performance still stays bad.

And from my own experiences, anytime I don't drink enough to stay very well hydrated, I'm tired and fatigued for long after, sometimes days. If I stay very well hydrated I'm ready to go again after a short rest of 20 minutes. And I'm almost twice your age.

Weighing before and after a ride can tell you if you are hydrating well. Some say 2% less than what you started out is okay. But I find that too much for me. I'm usually less than a pound difference after any ride, 1½ lbs at the most.

You should consider consulting a medical professional though. If you aren't already, then you should be doing annual wellness checks with your doctor. Even when you don't have any issues.

I am no expert but your problem almost sounds like something to do with nutrition and what you eat and drink before, during and after the ride.

OP didn't say that he was riding in extreme heat. And as he's in Chicago, I'd guess usually not. 2 botles for 30-40 miles in temperate conditions is plenty, in my experience. If temperatures are mild and I'm not going hard, one bottle would suffice.

OJ make a lousy sports drink, in my experience. Too acid. If you don't like the commercial sports drinks (Gatorade, Powerade), there are lots of better alternatives. Some with sugar or other carbs (maltodextrin),, some with just electrolytes.

Could easily be simple dehydration+electrolytes. But for "only" 30-40 miles, unless you're really putting in a hard effort, it's hard to see how that could seriously drain a person in terms of water. But it's easy to adjust. Try doubling your water intake in the ~hour prior to such rides, then doubling your intake during the ride. Might well be sufficient. If it turns out dehydration was the issue.

Ditto on sentiments about checking your blood pressure, blood oxygenation (pulse oximeter). Everyone should have a few home tools, including a means of measuring blood pressure and blood oxygenation. If none of that works, definitely get a check-up with your doctor.

Given that you seemingly have a pattern of dizziness/fogginess, it might be worth keeping a little log of your intake and exercise efforts, noting the times and durations when doing food, water, efforts. If nothing else, it might be a good record of what's going on, for the doctor to consider. But you might well see a pattern happening, when you make minor adjustments in fluid or food intake, in difficulty of the exercise.

Too many variables to say with any confidence.

I'd suggest OP weigh himself first thing in the morning, and then immediately when he gets back from the ride. Dehydration can make you feel dizzy, and this weighing can tell you if that's the case even before you pick up the phone to call the doc. Down a couple pounds? Make the call. Dropped 10 pounds? Have a (non-alcoholic) drink, perhaps with some salt (aka "electrolytes" if you want to throw some money towards an athletic store).

Note the normal advice is to do the pre-weighin right before starting the ride. I figure the 2 pounds he's drinking before starting should be counted as fluid intake associated with the ride.

Since you feel you're eating and drinking enough and still experiencing these symptoms I'd be on a video call with your doc, then have some blood drawn. See what's actually going on.

Wild ass guess: it's hyponatremia. If you're going to drink that much water, you HAVE TO use electrolytes, too. I maybe have a glass of juice or something with breakfast before a ride that short, and probably drink 1 bottle, maybe 1-/2 bottles during, then maybe finish that bottle when I get back. So try this: on the bike, only drink if you are thirsty. It's called "drink to thirst." We get thirsty because our DNA is set up to tell us when to drink, lucky us. Not thirsty, no need to drink. You'll notice that if you take electrolytes, they'll make you thirsty or at least thirstier.

I've been massively dehydrated, never made me dizzy.

I'm not a doctor but...

I'm still not a doctor.

As was I. The one bad time actually was nearer to heat stroke. Made me severely dizzy, along with nausea. The normal and customary moderately-dehydrated instances, though: no dizziness that could be traced to the tail end of the effort's insufficiency of fluids.

Of course, that's the tricky thing about bodies and medicine. So many differences, between individuals, in terms of how conditions function and manifest themselves. As many have suggested: at this point, it's too many variables to really know.

One has to experiment. Drinking a normal amount of water is simple and harmless. To those above who think a doctor can figure this out, good luck with that. Not my experience unless the doctor is an endurance cyclist, and even then, everyone is different, as you say. If the water thing doesn't work, there are other things to experiment with, like fueling. Not eating anything makes me dizzy - low blood sugar, but I'm sensitive to that. BTW, my PCP is an endurance cyclist.

Lucky you. Those are hard to come by. Wish I had one.

Read the above replies twice... maybe three times.

Educate yourself. Experiment. The cautious part of me says see a doctor.

Sooo many variables. I recently started riding at the end of this past spring. I started out with plain water, which was ok. When the heat wave hit, in Florida no less, I started riding pre-dawn and added sugar/lytes to my hydration. At the end of summer I was able to back off the sugar, didn't back off the lytes, and gained 5-10 pounds in water weight. I am not sweating near as much. Now I'm going light on the sugar and lytes and need half the volume of water with 50% more ride.

I bonked from the get go today because I lean towards a low carb diet. And I went super low carb over the weekend and yesterday, when I rode 32 and then another 32 miles today. Today it was likely a combo of the cold combined with high humidity and a low personal glycogen store. Drinking more water only made me queasy.

Afterwards my body craved bananas, ate 3, honey and sprouted grain bread after the ride. This was in addition to low fat greek yogurt and roast beef.

I feel good now.

So. Safe route is consult a doctor. But you can't go wrong with educating yourself, obtaining personal data (BP, pulse, glucose level etc) and acting accordingly.

Hope you figure this out. Safe riding.

It is amazing how much of our physiology is trainable. The Badwater 135 is a real thing. That said, there are limits. Riders have died both from hyponatremia and from heat stroke. It's good to familiarize oneself with the symptoms of both because there are limits.
The main noticeable symptom of heat stroke for a cyclist is the cessation of sweating. I watch my forearms, have seen it happen, found water in time. The cause is lack of water. The fix is water and shade.
Hyponatremia is trickier. Cyclists have died because they didn't recognize it: dizziness, fatigue, lethargy, confusion, malaise, nausea, or thirst. The cause is too much plain water. The fix is electrolytes.

I start getting tingly chills running up my spine. Perhaps it's the last bits of sweat drying off for that last little cooling effect. I have passed out from heat exhaustion. Thankfully it was after I reached the shade. Don't know what it'd been like if I was spread out in the baking direct sun.

Key here is "a few hours", nope, that's not good. Bicycling is a fast recovery sport. Feeling out of it a few minutes after a good one is normal but a few hours then something is up.

So what can ya do before you go to the doctor? Well, quite a few things now days.

• Your Protein and calorie meal log
• Your weight before and after a ride
• Your B/P and Heart Rate before and after a ride
• Your SaO2 before and after a ride
• Your Blood Sugar before and after a ride
• Even a single phase EKG before and after a ride
• And a urine dip stick before and after a ride

All the gadgets to do this a readily available on line and there are plenty of Youtubes to show ya how to do them. Also note that when you go to your Medical Provider they are not going to be there before and after your ride...

Ha... Ya got it 10 Wheels... I once nearly caused a bad accident when I projectile vomited on the windshield of a passing car on a climb. The driver at having her vision blocked swerved her car into the on coming lane and almost did a slow speed head on. I had done a drink of Orange Juice and Whey protein before the ride. It was a real mess!

Latter I discovered apple juice with Soy Protein was OK... But that's me...

I would invest in a home blood pressure measuring device and start checking your blood pressure in the morning and before and after your rides.

Staying hydrated is important but electrolytes are not the problem and adding more salt to you diet may help if you have low blood pressure.

Best to see your doctor and not seek medical advice from people on the internet.