DaveQ24

I'm in this serious HTFU mode right now. Life throws bad stuff at you, and ultimately you have to decide who wins.

I'll admit that over the last two years, circumstances got to me, and I handled it in ways I said I wouldn't and I'm not proud of - including a lot of binge eating and a massive weight gain from around 160 in the winter of 2015 to 220 maybe 225 when I peaked in late winter - spring of 2016. Then I lost about 30, then fell of the wagon amd put about 20 of that back on in a month last August. I finally got serious about that issue when that scared me, and I started at the weight loss program at the big University health system hospital and went back to working with a trainer 2 days a week. Still a struggle and always will be, but ... 165.3 at my Friday morning weigh in, lowest weight in 2 years plus.

So, sorry for the back story. The other relevant thing ... I am on a lot of prescription medications and some medically-necessary vitamin and mineral supplements per physicians for various conditions - anemia, heart/edema, asthma, osteoarthritis, etc.

So I rode my Sirrus yesterday with the goal of 50 on one of the Metrotrails. I was about 20 miles into it and suddenly my stomach felt funny - about a 1/4 mile later I was off the bike kneeling in the weeds and really violently sick to my stomach - for like 20 minutes, along with a rush of heat/temperature for a bit, which turned into a cold sweat and chills, heavy breathing, headache/dizzy. I was pretty miserable actually.

And it was my own fault - I try to spread these medications out through the day, but it gets complicated, I need to take many when I get up. I downed a handful of 10-12 pills before I left home, which was less than normal, I postponed some non-essentials at that moment for later.

I wasn't very hungry, I ate about half of a Quest bar and one Belvita breakfast biscuit. Drank a lot of H2O though.

And skipped the one prescription I should have taken, Zofran 5mg - that bottle was empty, I had just refilled it but didn't want to take the time to track the new one down. I take "as needed", felt good, and didn't think riding would be an issue. Dumbkopf - Zofran is an anti-nausea drug.

Then I pushed it pretty hard - well, for me, by the standards of the last 2 years - on a Sirrus with 28c Armadillos I averaged 14.8, 13.9, and 14.2 on the first three five mile splits per MMR.

So the outcome should have been foreseeable to me. Not again.

Well, I was lucky anyway, or God or Karma were looking out for me. I got sick at a MUP/Roadway crossing, a tenth of a mile was a 24 hour CVS, so when it stopped, I struggled there and bought OTC nausea medication and some dry, salty crackers. My next problems was I was completely drenched in a cold sweat and freezing, luck again, 1 mile down the MUP at the next intersection a 24 hour Meijer - dry socks, dry undershirt, dry underwear, dry shirt, and two hoodies - they had virtually NO cold-weather clothing but had a deeply discounted rack of team hoodies, so I got an MSU for about $9 and a Detroit Tigers for $14. Then I changed in the mens room, including about 5 minutes drying my padded cycling shorts under the hot air hair dryer. Put part of my wet clothes in my backpack and secured the rest on top of my Topeak rear case. And decided to turn homeward, since all of that took an hour and a half and I had a lot of other commitments later.

About 5 miles from home, an angry gander with 4 goslings charged me and nipoed my leg as I rode by, no harm no fowl.

About a mile from home, I was close to being hit at a side-street intersection as I rode past on the shoulder main road, driver not paying attention and was stopping feet past the stop line because of untrimmed vegetation that obscured the view. But I saw him first and took evasive action.

Return ride was much slower, 10.2 overall - but I did 42 of my 50 mile goal, lived to ride again, learned not to be such a fool about food and medications, and have a story to tell on BF.

europa

So, you went for a ride and got attacked by a bird with an attitude

Sounds like a fun trip. Frankly, you're welcome to it, I'll dream up my own dramas thank you very much. It's tough when medical stuff gets in the way though isn't it. I'm glad you got home okay.

AlexCyclistRoch

Last year, I attempted my first half-century since before my kidneys failed. I THOUGHT I was ready, and I guess I was, sorta.....but my bike wasn't completely ready (My gearing was just a bit tall for the rather hilly ride). By mid-point, I was feeling it hard, and rode mostly with the 70+_and_recumbent crowd, struggling to keep up on the hills. Eventually, I was dropped by even them, and I only managed to finish it by taking numerous breaks, and by walking my bike up the last 4 hills. I arrived at the end point just as the last riders were leaving. Got in my car, rested for a full hour before putting my bike on the rack and driving home.

Since then, I've limited my club rides to about the 35 mile mark; I just don't have the time for rides longer than that, or the training needed for anything more. But I still ride as regularly as I can.

Keep at it-having health problems is a b!tch, but giving up is worse.

berner

My motto is to do as much as I can as long as I can.

Don in Austin

You say you are on a lot of meds including hear meds. In this situation it is never a bad idea to do a strict review of this accumulation of meds and make sure you are only taking the ones that are essential and to be particularly on guard for bad interactions between them. Particularly a potential problem if there are multiple doctors involved. If you have a single doctor that resents this process that doctor should be fired. You can't go wrong by being proactive about this.

Don in Austin

canklecat

Sounds too familiar. This year I'm wrestling with that murky gray zone between listening to my body (which is always whining about how bad it aches) and telling my body to shut up and go along for the ride. Sometimes the body wins and we go easy. Some days the mind wins and everything turns out okay.

And some days are like you described -- the body tells the mind, "Okay, let's do it your way, wise guy. Don't blame me if we suffer. You're the one who spouted that silly 'HTFU' nonsense, while I said 'Let's go for an easy ride today, or at least take a good long warm up before going hard.' But nooo, we had to go hard right from the driveway. And were we any faster today? Nope. Did we have fun today? Nope. But go ahead, wise guy, keep doing things your way. Whadda I know, I'm just the body around here."

Blah-blah-blah.

Stupid bodies.

doctor j

Well done DaveQ24, you pushed through it, and you should be proud. You learned something new, and that's good as well. Stay with it!

rumrunn6

epic

Machka 

Have you thought about going to one doctor with all your medications, laying them out in front of him and having a serious discussion about what you really need, and what works with others or doesn't work with others, and side effects? Having to take an anti-nausea drug because your meds are making you sick just doesn't seem right.