Sudden fatigue / forced bedtime

Herbsman

Got home from work one day and felt more tired than usual, not even a nice kind of tired but a really horrible "Is there a carbon monoxide leak?" type tired. Felt like I'd been drugged and had to put my head on the dining room table for a bit before going to bed as quickly as possible. Which wasn't very quick. Had to miss dinner and ended up in bed for 14 hours. Anyone else experienced anything like this?

GiantMike

Herbsman wrote:

Anyone else experienced anything like this?

I've been involved on a T.T.R. thread. Does this count?

estampida

yes

15 years ago, I used to race XC, 250-300mls a week training and slept 14 hours a day (parents started to worry)

had a load of blood tests, as I am a whippet build and was exercising a lot the doctor took a look at me and said it test time.....

suggested it was thyroid or maybe some blood issue and tests came back normal...

so what did I do - scaled back training and could stay awake like all other 16 year olds and never had the problem again

but that was long term high pressure training, not sure about you own output, might just be a virus..........

but check with the doc, could be something underlying

springtide9

Probably a virus? As it sounds like it was a one off rather than long term fatigue.

styxd

Yes, my experience sounds very similar to estampida's.

Do alot of miles per week over summer, feel ruined every night!

Come winter when I dont ride alot due to ice/darkness/bad roads (lack of motivation!), I'm fine. Although if I do a big ride on a Saturday, I'm still useless for a Saturday night out.

Trev The Rev

GiantMike wrote:

Herbsman wrote:

Anyone else experienced anything like this?

I've been involved on a T.T.R. thread. Does this count?

Very droll.

I would have thought Herbsman's power meter data would have predicted this sudden tiredness.
But this might be the body's way of fighting off a virus or bug. I have often noticed that when those around me are all going down with colds and sore throats I sometimes have a day when I feel totally knackered and washed out. Best to accept and take it easy for a few days rather than ignore it and push on regardless.

Herbsman

Trev The Rev wrote:

GiantMike wrote:

Herbsman wrote:

Anyone else experienced anything like this?

I've been involved on a T.T.R. thread. Does this count?

Very droll.

I would have thought Herbsman's power meter data would have predicted this sudden tiredness.
But this might be the body's way of fighting off a virus or bug. I have often noticed that when those around me are all going down with colds and sore throats I sometimes have a day when I feel totally knackered and washed out. Best to accept and take it easy for a few days rather than ignore it and push on regardless.

I don't have a power meter!!!!

ShutUpLegs

What a Whopper

Camus

styxd wrote:

Yes, my experience sounds very similar to estampida's.

Do alot of miles per week over summer, feel ruined every night!

Come winter when I dont ride alot due to ice/darkness/bad roads (lack of motivation!), I'm fine. Although if I do a big ride on a Saturday, I'm still useless for a Saturday night out.

I can relate to this, for some reason cycling makes me a hell of lot more tired than other forms of excercise, I run a lot and play tennis two or three times a week, but can always guarantee that after more than a couple of hours riding, normally Saturdays and Sundays, my body feels much more fatigued. In comparison I can play tennis pretty much all day and feel fine, or go for a long run and feel nowhere near as spent after. This is nothing like what the OP describes, that could have been a 24 hour bug maybe, had you eaten/hydrated properly?

Herbsman

My partner has a cold so maybe I've caught it but been affected differently.

I rode home a bit too hard (not ridiculously hard, but harder than I planned to) on the way home before it happened, and it was about -3 according to weather forecasts.

Only way I can describe it is, like a big hand was pushing down on me, trying to flatten me. It was like being put under anaesthetic... way different to the normal pleasant kind of tiredness you feel at the end of the day... and to be honest I was paranoid that I had carbon monoxide poisoning and wasn't going to wake up! :oops:

Trev The Rev

Herbsman wrote:

Got home from work one day and felt more tired than usual, not even a nice kind of tired but a really horrible "Is there a carbon monoxide leak?" type tired. Felt like I'd been drugged and had to put my head on the dining room table for a bit before going to bed as quickly as possible. Which wasn't very quick. Had to miss dinner and ended up in bed for 14 hours. Anyone else experienced anything like this?

You are only supposed to use the carbon monoxide as a marker which attaches itself to the blood’s haemoglobin which enables you to tailor the altitude training with remarkable efficiency getting up to 12 per cent improvement in haemoglobin levels, compared to up to six per cent before.

Cyclists are years behind some other sports, probably because they are too interested in drugs.

colinsmith123

Herbsman wrote I rode home a bit too hard (not ridiculously hard, but harder than I planned to) on the way home before it happened, and it was about -3 according to weather forecasts.

Only way I can describe it is, like a big hand was pushing down on me, trying to flatten me. It was like being put under anaesthetic... way different to the normal pleasant kind of tiredness you feel at the end of the day... and to be honest I was paranoid that I had carbon monoxide poisoning and wasn't going to wake up!

Having ridden hard to and from work on Tuesday, I had the same thing happen to me on Wednesday's commute home. It was well below freezing as well. I've learnt, the colder it is the longer it takes for me to get up to pace, so I usually give it 20 minutes or so at the bottom of Z2 but it didn't happen, there was nothing I could do to raise the pace and it took me 2 hours to do my usual hour and a quarter ride. The analogy of feeling like a big hand was pushing down and having been drugged is spot on. I slept like a log for 10 hours as opposed to the usual 7.5. I took two days off, went out today and did a long ride, felt fine..(ish... hilly route!). So I've concluded (for the moment) that a combination of being too old to be out in the cold, cold and probably riding when I should have been resting were the main reasons.

Herbsman, thanks for the post.

neeb

I'm pretty sure this sort of thing at this time of year is usually due to viruses. I've always felt that you don't necessarily need to have a cold to be fighting off a cold - if your immune system is on top of the virus and has kicked in early maybe it's using a lot of energy to fight off the bug without you actually getting any symptoms. If you combine that with training, it's going to hit you hard. That's my theory anyway. Drink lots of fluid and take 2 or 3 days off the bike until you feel normal again.

Davey C

I echo the comments about the viruses. A few weeks ago I, with my partner suffering from a cold, I went out on my normal Saturday and Sunday rides. Despite feeling ok in the morning I tried to put out my usual power and just couldn't. Felt absolutely wrecked then all afternoon despite it being an easy club ride. Same thing happened on the Sunday, ended up crawling up the last climb struggling to hold 200 watts. As soon as I got home I went straight to bed and didn't get up until the following morning.

I've since unscientifically decided that I was probably fighting a virus and while no symptoms were evident it was having an impact on my ability to train/function properly.

Trev The Rev

Davey C wrote:

I echo the comments about the viruses. A few weeks ago I, with my partner suffering from a cold, I went out on my normal Saturday and Sunday rides. Despite feeling ok in the morning I tried to put out my usual power and just couldn't. Felt absolutely wrecked then all afternoon despite it being an easy club ride. Same thing happened on the Sunday, ended up crawling up the last climb struggling to hold 200 watts. As soon as I got home I went straight to bed and didn't get up until the following morning.

I've since unscientifically decided that I was probably fighting a virus and while no symptoms were evident it was having an impact on my ability to train/function properly.

Listening to your body and taking into account how your body is responding is hardly unscientific. It would be unscientific to ignore the loss of power which was a major symptom as was needing to go to bed.

pilch

colinsmith123 wrote:

riding when I should have been resting were the main reasons.

That'll be my guess... done it myself, too many miles without proper recovery leaves you tired and open to all kinds of bugs. This time a few years ago I was doing lots of miles taking the odd day off here & there but no rest weeks, I caught a virus very similar to what the OP is describing, but the symptoms lasted for 2 weeks initially - right through christmas & new year.

However, it took me a long time to shake the thing completely, I didn't really feel 100% for 6 months... kind of wrote off the race season I had trained for.