Double vision on long rides!!

rkdj
rkdj Posts: 50
edited May 2011 in Training, fitness and health
Hi. It's been a wee while since I posted anything on this site.
Need some help.
I have noticed on a couple of rides that my long distance vision is struggling a wee bit. Close up is easy enough but I am suffering a bit from double vision. Yesterday I did an 80 mile ride at hard pace and at 60 miles it hit me again. Put it down to dehydration so finished my water (with salts) and seemed ok 10 miles down the road. I am a big guy and i do sweat a lot so i make sure i am fully toped up with water before and during a ride. I had a big bowl of porridge before I started and three gels during the ride. Don't think I ran out of fuel but a friend who has type 2 diabetes suggested it was a classic of low blood sugar........

I am now worried.......

Any thoughts? Should I go to the docs?
older, balder, faster, slimmer, better

Comments

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Get yourself to the docs rather than ask advice on this forum!!

    (hang on, that is advice on the forum)
  • rkdj
    rkdj Posts: 50
    A reply from NapD - truly I am honoured.....
    By the way that's the same advice I got from my wife.
    My wife and NapD - that should tell me something!
    older, balder, faster, slimmer, better
  • Cleat Eastwood
    Cleat Eastwood Posts: 7,508
    thems the symptoms of low blood sugar. take some gels, a quick way to get sugars in ya blood.
    The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns
    momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.
  • amaferanga
    amaferanga Posts: 6,789
    3 gels for a 3 hour plus ride isn't exactly a lot. Why aren't you eating proper food though instead of wasting money on gels? Save the gels for racing/events.
    More problems but still living....
  • ozzy1000_0
    ozzy1000_0 Posts: 144
    amaferanga wrote:
    3 gels for a 3 hour plus ride isn't exactly a lot. Why aren't you eating proper food though instead of wasting money on gels? Save the gels for racing/events.

    I'd agree with above, I have tried gels and carb drinks and they just mess up my stomach... flapjack has 60gms of carbs per 100. banannas have 25ish gms (i think) fig rolls have 12.5 per roll..... fig rolls are about 65p per packet!!!

    real food is alot cheaper and doesn't jigger up your guts.... for an iso tonic drink I do 50/50 orange juice/water then put a good measure of sea salt in it (sea salt is useually less harsh than cheap salt)... also I agree that the vision thing sounds like water/blood sugar, might be worth asking you Dr though.......
  • pianoman
    pianoman Posts: 706
    Save the gels for racing/events

    And even then only if you're properly flying at high speed - there's a point at which the body goes from burning carbs to fats and if you're taking on sugary energy for the sake of it the body's insulin response kicks in. As for energy drinks I always use just half the concentration the manufacturers suggest..........unless I'm rdoing a short race and I'm only taking one bottle.

    I'll always remember a particularly disastrous cafe stop last year with the club where I had a chocolate brownie with tons of sugar in it, sat there for half an hour and then pedalled back slowly as a group. Never felt worse in my life once I had to climb the final hill before home. If we'd bombed it back immediately at 20mph+ after consuming all that sugar, I'd have probably shot the lights out. "Fast sugar" is just that - fast fuel.

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