5 months since my last post. I'm still alive! and I'm still struggling with the same issues.
Shortly after my last post I took a mountain biking trip to Colorado. I had received a call from the cardiologist nurse who said the nuclear stress test didn't show any problems. On the second day had my most epic day on a bike, On August 1st we rode Monarch Crest down and then the road back to the top. 55 miles and 5100 feet of climbing on a mountain bike. It wiped me out. On out last day there I climbed Mt. Mitchel and didn't have any issues with it. I was schedule to go see the cardiologist again sometime in late August but I had returned to teaching and forgot about it. Truth is I decided not to go, I got my bill for the Nuclear stress test and though I only had to pay a percentage the test cost like 12,000 dollars. Feel like I was wasting my time and money.
The cardiologist had already told me, if the nuclear stress test didn't show a problem, and I survived my cycling trip to Colorado he was going to prescribe me beta blockers. I didn't want to take beta blockers as I felt like I wanted the opposite effect. Beta blockers block adrenaline receptors and I and only really feel good when I'm riding on adrenaline. I feel like my body is stuck in parasympathetic nervous system mode. When I had raised these concerns with him he just shrugged and said, "You should take them."
ON August 20th I wrapped up my 3 months of coached training with an FTP test, I averaged 270 watts for 20 minutes.
On August 29th I had my best performance of the year. Went on a group ride, only the third group ride I'd done all year. I did a lesiurely ride to meet the group. There was a 27 year old former Cat1 racer at the ride who was visiting town and taking all the local KOMs. On this ride I had a 159 average Heart Rate and hit 180 once. I stayed with the former racer on all the climbs and dropped him in the flats and downhills. I felt amazing.
September was a recovery month, stopped doing training rides and just rode for fun.
I started Zwift racing in October, easily won my first D class race. A couple days later I did a C class race and did well too with a Normalized power of 271. I've continued doing C class events but power output has been down.
Since then I've been struggling, Yesterday I did a mountain bike ride with a few guys and struggled badly the entire time. Today I tried to ride a local 3 mile climb, and posted my two slowest times up the climb EVER! Both days my average heart rate was only 129 and both rides I felt like I was burying myself just to keep going.
I'd really like to find some kind of physician who was interested in figuring out what is wrong with me. I'm going to ask around for ideas.