Post ride exhaustion

GixerJas

Has anyone got any nutritional advise to help with after exercise exhaustion?

The problem I'm experiencing is that after a usual 50 mile group ride on Sunday mornings, which generally goes well although by the time I get home I'm fairly knackered. An hour or so after getting home I feel completely exhausted, light headed, cold and a bit sick. I think my blood pressure must drop a fair bit too because if I'm squatting down for a few seconds and then stand up I go blind for a few seconds and have to hold on to something before I fall over, amusing but not pleasant. I usually ride twice a week, an intense night time mtb-xc session and a Sunday road ride, where I recently made the jump from doing 25 miles on my own to 50 miles with a group after joining a club last November.

During the ride I typically drink about 1L of sports energy drink and quite often do a cafe stop for a coffee and flapjack, on top of a sugar free muesli breakfast. So far I've tried recovery drinks and light meals as I'm keen to avoid eating a large meal because I'm trying to reduce my weight.

I'm guessing that my body has used up all its glycogen stores and I've been running on endorphins and by the time my body calms down it's short of something. During the ride isn't a problem but the after effects are, any suggestions?

AntLockyer

Do you have a recovery meal/drink?

Ste_S

Sounds very similar to how I am after a club run. There's a homemade fruitjuice concoction that I've started having which helps a bit post ride.

I've tended to stay away from the likes of Rego as my farts post-ride are bad enough as it is after drinking a sports drink :oops:

GixerJas

Do you have a recovery meal/drink?

I've been trying the science in sport products and quite like rego but thought the flatulence was due to the home made tarka dal I'd been eating, either way rego didn't stop the post-ride crash :?

hambones

I'd recommend eating more during the ride itself. Little and often works well, try a banana or slow release bar, plus a few wine gums!

Richie G

Another vote for the humble banana- my traditional mid & after ride snack! (Normally followed by me consuming most of the food in the house !)

Steve I

Many cyclists do a 50 mile ride on a Sunday, including me. I can't imagine many of them drinking a litre of energy drink for such a short ride, if nothing else it's bad for your teeth. What works for me is a bowl of porridge with a sliced banana and a mug of coffeee for breakfast. About 25 or 30 miles in I'll stop briefly and eat another banana and a Nutrigrain Elevenses bar or similar low fat cereal bar. I have plain water in the bike bottle. I appreciate that if you're with a group, stopping might not be practical, but most group rides usually have a pee stop when you can eat at least half a cereal bar.

Flapjacks are high in fat, not really desirable if you're trying to lose weight. As for how you feel after the ride, it could be that your body isn't yet adapted to the new level of exercise. Given time, I think you'll be fine. I always have a 30 minute chill out with a cuppa as soon as II get in, then I'll put the bike and gear away, shower and murder lunch. BTW, that dizziness you describe happens to me too, and not just after a ride. Checked my blood pressure on a home tester and it's consistently 125/58, great, I've got both high and low blood pressure :?

dennisn

Strangely enough a beer or 2 will put some carbs back in you really quickly. Cheap
carb's very quickly. Then you can go for some real food. Try not to live on energy
drinks and bars. Eat real food. Notice I said a beer or two. Don't get carried away
like me or you'll end up a fat slob, like me.

Dennis Noward

heavymental

Maybe you need to think about how many calories you're taking in. You do actually burn a hell of a lot of energy riding hard and when a mate pointed out to me that the pack of dry roasted peanuts I wolfed down (yeh I know, awful choice of snack!) would only see me through a few miles I was quite surprised. Make sure you've always got plenty in the tank and refuel in line with the effort you've expended.

GixerJas

Thanks for the suggestions, I think I'll give the porridge and bananas a go and knock the flapjacks on the head, I was thinking about the sugar and oats and forgot about all the butter that goes into them.

The 1L of sports drink is actually a couple of tea spoons of GO in water so it's not really doing much more than hydrating. To be honest as long as I've got a reasonable calorie deficit I'm not to worried as my heart rate monitor estimates that I'm burning about 3000 calories over the morning so I can probably get away with eating a bit more of the right foods on the ride.

I'll give it a go next Sunday :!:

Jaeger

I found myself getting extremely exhausted after longer, say 50 mile, rides when i first stepped up to that distance. My main 'symptom' was getting extremely shaky as soon as i got off the bike. I didn't think i changed my post meal diet a great deal, just gradually found it reducing with time. Choco milk is supposed to be an excellent sports recovery drink. Might be worth a try..?!

I like a cold tin of Ravioli before a ride - not the easiest thing to eat at 7/8am before a ride, but keeps you going!

APIII

Steve I wrote:

Many cyclists do a 50 mile ride on a Sunday, including me. I can't imagine many of them drinking a litre of energy drink for such a short ride

50 miles is what? 3 hours ride for the average cyclist. I'd go through a 750ml bottle of water and another of sports drink, more in the summer. A litre of the sugary stuff doesn't seem so far fetched. I'm always a LOT more fatigued after a ride if I haven't drunk enough.

AntLockyer

3000 calories??? I read that people burn about 5000 on L'Etape

If you are burning 3000 and only taking on about what 500? Then I'm suprised you haven't passed out.

feel

Steve I wrote:

Checked my blood pressure on a home tester and it's consistently 125/58, great, I've got both high and low blood pressure :?

Hi Steve, my blood pressure is often similar to yours and i was equally confused at the high and low. However, after a little research i found out that the difference between the systolic (high) and Diastolic (low) figures should be within 40 of each other and that a large difference can indicate hardening of the arteries :shock: Would be interested if anyone knows anything related, similar or to the contrary. Apologies for being OT

With regard to longish rides i tend only to do 35 miles or so at a time but manage with porridge breakfast, half a dozen mouthfuls of water and a banana en route with no ill effects after.

Steve I

Hi feel, I'm not all that concerned about the strange readings, but I did worry a bit last night when searching the internet about what you said. If I had hardening of the arteries I doubt very much if I'd have won my club's hill climb last year. Checked my BP this morning and it was 123/67, I haven't a clue what this means. Rather ominously though, for all middle aged to older aged endurance athletes (not just cyclists), I did find this; http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2004/Projects/J1018.pdf
I'm 45 years old with a resting heart rate usually below 50 BPM and if I lie down and keep still for a few minutes in the evening, sometimes as low as 40. I've always had a nagging suspicion that having a fairly well developed cardio vascular system isn't necessarily good for your health in the long term. This study seems to point in that direction.

The internet is like a medical encyclopedia, you can worry yourself sick reading about what you might have. Better to seek advice from an expert if really worried I think.

regards

Steve

GixerJas

I had my blood pressure tested whilst I was visiting my doctors a coupe of months ago, mine was 122/55. After a bit of research it seems that my systolic pressure is fine and within normal limits but I haven't had much luck finding a suitable explanation for the low diastolic reading. I'm guessing that it is linked to a low resting heart rate, with the associated lower cardiac output, although it would be nice to know if there's any significance.

duckiciao

Winter training formula by allsports. tastes lovely, and gives you loads of energy, and its cheaper than psp22.

I would predictably bonk at 45miles using psp22, now using WTF I can easily do 60-70 miles.

Its basically a milkshake as it contains whey protein, and the chocolate flavour seems to be the best, butterscotch is a bit bland. Try some, I'd recomend it.

Spare Tyre

If you are eating sensibly and still getting post-ride exhaustion, maybe the group rides are just too hard for your current level of fitness. Last year I re-joined the "fast" group on my local clubrun after a gap of a few years and it took me a couple of months to get used to the extra effort (prior to this I was just doing some commuting and steady touring rides). There are ways to make the ride a little bit easier - for example, if you are struggling to keep up on a climb, just ride at your own pace rather than trying to hang on. Then, instead of wasting energy trying to catch up after the climb, let the others wait for you. If they don't wait, find another group to ride with!

GixerJas

I thought I'd add a conclusion to my original post about post ride exhaustion now that I've had a chance to try out a few different suggetions over the last couple of months.

The answer for me is definitely EAT MORE (of the correct foods), so far my best combination of foods seems to be a high carb meal the night before e.g. spag bol for the Saturday evening meal, porridge and a banana for breakfast and another banana and a 750ml bottle of winter training formula whilst on the bike seem to really do the trick. I used this combination yesterday and my Sunday 50 mile ride with the club was a breeze. I even managed to sprint the last 5 miles home and felt like 60 miles was well within my capabilities. The week before I got it completely wrong and bonked at 45 miles so I reckon it's all down to what I'd eaten rather than a fitness issue.

Wooliferkins

Get some carbs in you as soon as you get back, within 15 mins of stopping riding. Then do your stretching cleaning etc and try to get a proper meal in you within an hour.