HR Drop-off/dizziness in first part of ride..

Velvet

Twice now had rather scary incidents where after a long climb up a hill (not that steep just very long) I've stopped for a breather at the top, and found myself unable to breath.

THe second time it happened, I had the presence of mind to look at my HRM, and realised my heart rate had plummeted in less than a minute from up in the mid 170's down to 100-110bpm - that's a lot of beats to lose in just 15-30 seconds!

I've done a bit of research on this and it seems it's down to bigger leg muscles (yes, I've discovered I actually HAVE them rather than bits of wet string now) and a sudden drop in blood pressure and heart rate when you stop exercising suddenly, but this only seems to happen somewhere between 30-60 mins into a ride - similar hills later on don't seem to have the same effect, the heart rate will stay up around 140-150 during a quick breather, rather than the headlong plunge toward double figures...

Short of not stopping (not always possible to avoid, unfortunately) is there anything else I could do to try and prevent this happening? Has anyone else had this happen? I'll talk to the doc about it when I manage to get an appointment, but I'd be interested to hear some cyclists inputs on it too - docs not always being all that clued up on non-pootling cycling...

mattp71

You mentioned first part of the ride. Perhaps your not warmed up enough and are starting out too hard too soon? I've experienced dizziness when I've went too far into the red zone. What I have discovered is my lungs can not get enough oxygen to my muscles causing my heart rate to go through the roof to make up for it. You can expand your lung capacity somewhat by doing some yoga exercises or obtaining one of those breathing tools.

Only advice I can really give you is either lose some weight, or don't go so hard on the climb

Good luck.

Velvet

Well, I've been out cycling for about half an hour to an hour by time - not *quite* sure how long it takes to get to the range of hills (by hills I'm talking about a climb of about 80metres over probably half a mile, maybe a little more - I know people call them undulations sometimes but they're hills to me!).

I'm not in the red zone - the legs are just border line on the LA point, I've learnt how to control that and keep them just below it now, though they get tired they don't burn up - and the heart rate is high but not as high as it can get later in the ride, and nowhere near the max.

I know the thing that tallies with it is when I stop and get off the bike - if I carry on then the heart rate stays up, the legs are tired but recover on the downhill - the heart rate dropping that fast (80 beats in less than 30 seconds), and that's the bit that's puzzling me.

I'm trying to lose weight, but my body's refusing to cooperate - it's dropping fat to build muscle at the moment, and of course the muscle is denser, so I'm getting thinner but not lighter LOL

Going less hard on the climb'd be a bit hard - I'm in my lowest gear on a triple, going at a lowish cadence - I suppose about 6-7mph tops - if I drop the speed the cadence turns to pushing slow to really grinding and my knees won't take that. I can't get out the saddle to climb yet, and it's such a long steady drag up the hill (I'll dig out the distance of it from the HRM at some point this weekend and calculate the gradient properly) that it has to be slow, steady, seated work to get up it.

As it turns out, I'm off to the doc to get it checked out next week, cos my parents are going bonkers worrying and telling me I shoudl stop cycling cos of it, and certainly not do the charity 50+10 mile ride weekend after this one coming..... I am NOT giving up the one thing that's got me fitter than I've EVER been before, after having to give up scuba diving for (unrelated) medical reasons, and sailing (temporarily) due to nerve injury in an arm (still waiting patiently for it to heal properly a year later)...

::frustrated::

mattp71

What is your age? If your young, like 14-18 or even up to mid 20's, it's not uncommon for your body to recover that fast from an effort. Without knowing your age, height, and weight, sounds like your just out of shape.