maher

Hi, I am 49 y.o, and doing 3-4 rides a week that ranges between 30 - 60 miles per ride .. I did experience 2 occasions of significant drop in my blood pressure (BP) towards the end of the ride. It was too hard that I could hardly lift my neck on the last few miles on the ride. At home, my BP was around 88/55 .. very low! I was dizzy. After eating, drinking and resting, it started climbing back up. I do take blood pressure pills .. I am thinking I might need a lower dose, but I also read about the post exercise hypotension as a condition widely observed. Appreciate any opinions that can help prevent or reduce this problem .. Thanks

WhyFi

My opinion: talk to your doctor.

maher

I am planning to .. Just thought to see if someone had similar experience.

Ogsarg

Go see your doctor. That is the only advice here that you should listen to.

spelger

It sounds pretty scary. any advice outside seeing a dr would just be anecdotal at best.

Enjoy riding but do it safely.

JohnDThompson 

Any chance you were dehydrated? With less circulating volume when dehydrated, pressure drops. Usually this is accompanied by an increase in heart rate to maintain cardiac output, but many blood pressure medications also limit heart rate and can suppress that effect. As a result, you can become symptomatic (dizzy, weak).

Koyote

An MD would not offer a diagnosis over an internet forum...And anyone else's opinion isn't worth much.

Start with your general care physician. Don't postpone it.

Litespud

standard “not a medical professional” disclaimer etc, but my FIL ran into something like this - he was unusually active for a guy in his 70s - walked miles, played golf & tennis etc. I think he was on beta blockers that resulted in significant bouts of low blood pressure - turned out that that they had to recalibrate his dosage based on the fact that his level of physical activity put him outside “the norm” wrt standard dosing. Make sure your medic is aware of the extent of your cycling. For most people, “I ride a bike” doesn’t mean 3-4 30-60-mile rides/week

Sasquatch16

Obviously not a medical opinion but had similar thing happen to me that scared me enough to go to hospital. End result was that I was severely dehydrated which leads to lower blood volume along with hard exercise which expands your blood vessels and your blood pressure drops.
Please check with your doctor though.

MoAlpha

As an MD, I’ll just leave this here: The potential consequences of drops in blood pressure are much more serious for people with history of high blood pressure than for others. Do not **** around with this.

Iride01 

Do you have an HR monitor? What were your BPM during your ride?

One time and only one time when I just was starting to get addicted to the high cardio rush some of us get with cycling, I noticed my vision was a little blurry and feeling light headed during a ride, but on my way home and close to the house. My HR was only in the low 80's and it should have been around 135 for that part of my ride.

I've asked several doctors about it including a cardiologist. And you most certainly should get checked out too. However in my case they couldn't find anything wrong and just said to let them know if it happens again. Thankfully that hasn't.

You do hydrate adequately on your rides don't you?

Jack Tone 

I've noticed the same thing. After a hard workout, sometimes 85/45 or so. Also history of high blood pressure, and take meds for it. I was worried and talked to my cardiologist. He seems to not be worried and said "You're dehydrated". Still, I would get a professional opinion.

Wildwood 

You told us you ride between 90 - 240miles per week.
Was it a high mileage week?
You felt better and returned to normal after eating and drinking.....

Probably dehydrated.
Possibly close to bonking.

Was it hotter than normal? Hillier?

see the doctor, of course.

philbob57

At 5:55 PM, no doc I know of except in hospitals and ERs are easily available. At 9:55 PM, as I write, I recommend looking up info on the med(s) you take to get a sense of side effects. I'd consider dehydration as a reason and make sure I drank enough water, and I'd add calling my doc tomorrow AM on my to-do list.

I'd also tell myself it's probably something simple - but I'd make the call in the AM.

Doge

You were likely dehydrated / needed an electrolyte. Then you take BP pills. So hard to say and maybe you shouldn't be. Taking meds certainly complicates what advice you might get on a forum.

This is not medical advice, but many doctors are not used to folks riding 3 hours. Talking to your doctor is good advice. They give good opinions. Use your brain. They guess a lot and what many do for rides is out of scope for their training or patients. You may know more about your body than the pros do.

If you check your BP and SPO2 (cheap pulse oximeter) and morning resting HR you will get a lot of information that a single visit to a pro can not have. Talking to a doctor and also measuring BP (as you did) morning resting HR and SPO2 can't hurt.

mpath

I've had similar experience since taking blood pressure pills a couple of years ago which only occurred on post-running or post-cycling days where the drop was so drastic I exhibited the same effects as you did. As you probably already know there's a great variety of BP medication, my GP had me try several different ones over the course of several months, and now settled on one that doesn't result in that much of a drop - post-ride usually 100/80 range. I'm 56 btw.

datlas 

I hope OP is still alive. Update?

Bueller? Bueller???