Originally Posted by
gattm99
Just a quick update. The original doctor I saw ordered a complete bloodwork. He called back when I was at work and told my wife everything was normal, but I had slightly high triglycerides. He wasn't involved with the stress stess, the Cardiologist comes to this small rural hospital hospital once a week to administer the tests, he was the one who pissed me off. I haven't called or went back to the doctor since then.
I'm out of school now and have much more free time. I got in 200 miles last week of May, and 130 first week of June. Most of these rides started with tightness in the chest, left arm tightness and a general feeling of weakness in the early stages of the ride and then I felt great in the later stages.
I remember two rides where I started out feeling great and had no issues. One thing that sets these rides apart is sleep. Before both I went to bed early and slept a bit later. I typically get about 6-7 hours of sleep per night. The last week of teaching school and things are winding down I tend to stay up later but was still getting up early, I drive 2 hours a day for work. I was probably gett about 5-6 hours of sleep in late May.
Another difference is both of these rides started with extended slow warm ups. In one I started with My parents and did about an hour around 120 heart rate. Then I did a few 15 minute threshold intervals and had zero tightness.
Do you think chronic lack of sleep might be causing my body to be so slow to adjust to high intensity?
In my opinion -- absolutely. It most certainly does in mine. Sleep is the single most critical component of training, and aerobic training is no exception.
Although you can hide it a lot easier than during an anaerobic session. Because when your mind isn't fully regenerated through sleep, the mind/muscle connection will be the first loss you will notice. In fact, when you don't get enough sleep you unusually feel groggy as soon as you wake up. The moment you try to concentrate and push any heavy weight, your mind will turn into jelly.
No matter how good you maintain your nutrition, it won't be applied if you don't have a good recuperative night's sleep. I always aim for 8 hours when I want to performer my best. But the minimum should be 7. Anything below that and I won't even bother. Anything below 7 and not only will your performance take a dramatic nose dive and do more harm than good.
Of course there are always those that will claims the opposite. In those cases, all I can say is that there's no accounting of personal testimonials. If you say so.