Originally Posted by
Iride01
After several years of having a LDL higher than what my Doctor desires, I've relented and started on the statin, Pravastatin, a little over a week ago... 4 rides ago.
Right off the bat I notice that riding now seems to be a chore! Essentially I feel as if I have no energy reserves to climb hills anymore. So I'm wondering if anyone knows... better yet understands the relationship between statins and glycogen use by the muscles in the body.
One other thing I've noticed is that my HR seems to be about 10 BPM higher than what's normal for me on those rides. Though all in all, once I accept that some climbs I no longer do quite as well, the over all times for my rides are still pretty much the same. And I've even increased what Garmin thinks my FTP is as well as increased my lactate threshold. Though the latter might just be directly because of the higher HR BPM I'm having while riding. But still, despite the data showing otherwise for all but climbing, my perceived effort for a entire ride is much higher than previous.
Perhaps this should be in Pills and Ills in the old peoples sub-forum, but since I'm asking about statin's effect/affect to glycogen use during hard efforts I felt it might get better answers here.
There are different ways Garmin can think it found your FTP. If you set a new 20 minute MMP record it will tell you your new threshold is 95% of that. But mostly it's based on your HRV. If that's what triggered your Garmin to tell you this, ignore it. Their algorithms assume healthy heart function that is not affected by medication. They don't know you're taking statins and the effect they have on you breaks the calculations. The result is still interesting and might be worth bringing up when you talk to your doctor about this. But it's not your new FTP.