Not that brief overview. I have no family medical history of anything in particular. This time last year I was probably as fit and healthy as I’ve ever been. Mountain bike riding was going well, for a change I was one of the fastest climbers in my group. I was knocking out 20+ mph in road rides over 40 miles in a group. Average HRs of mid 150s was ‘comfortable’, peaking in high 170s-low 180s.

This year I felt I was getting colds a bit too frequently, around one a month. However the colds weren’t snotty colds. There were more the achey leg/slightly upset stomach type cold. This impacted on my riding, and I noticed my heart rate would not get as high as it used to, I would quickly be feeling out of breath, have a very strong heart beat, feel tight chested, anxious even, I couldn’t sustain any sort of hard effort, etc. I put this all down to having a cold. With a bit of time off it would pass, I’d start to exercise again and just as I was getting back up to speed fitness wise it would happen again.

I’ve had three doctors visits since Easter. Had a chest x-ray and blood test, they came up with nothing. Tried a blue inhaler, it didn’t seem to do a lot. I’m off this afternoon for some spirometry tests. From what I gather we’re trying to rule out Asthma.

The latest episode was kicked off by an attempted ride up Alpe d’Huez. My HR was 160ish, but would not go higher, strength of the beat was extremely hard, tight chest, etc. So I bailed. I then spent the following week getting out of breath doing anything slightly strenuous – even a flight of stairs resulted in an elevated HR and breathlessness. It’s not so bad now but my 2 mile ride to work is at a very gentle pace.

The doctor doesn’t seem to have a clue what could be causing it. If anyone has any ideas of things to investigate I really appreciate it, even if they are just things that we can rule out so we can narrow it down.

Thanks

Wild guess… Over training? Too many stresses (training, family, work, lack of sleep, worry etc) & not enough rest time to balance it all out? Could less be more?

Why not try asking totally uneducated nobodies on an internet forum (like STW) for a diagnosis? 😆

Or if you are seriously concerned then change your doctor?

I have similar symptoms actually, but when put up against it i.e. in a race or a tough group ride my body sorts itself out. But training on my own I struggle to get anywhere as much out of myself or my HR. I’d put it down to more of a mental issue than anything physical.

LOL.

The thing is toddby, the doctor doesn’t seem to know what it is. Seeing as some of the people on here exercise a lot I thought there is a reasonable chance someone might find the story familiar and be able to point me (and my doctor) in the right direction. But thanks for the helpful reply.

I had this a few years ago. Never felt 100%. Lasted about 18 months & then went away. I put it down to overtraining. But I don’t rule out a pyschological dimension. I would just chill for a bit & take things easy. (I am not a doctor)

Does sound like over training to me, I was in this situation a few years ago and it sorted itself when I backed off, stopped looking at the numbers and returned to prioritising fun. Then again I know nothing according to Mrs mb

Get back to the doc and get more investigations and thought put into it.

I had exactly the same symptoms earlier in the year, sometimes I couldn’t even walk up a flight of stairs without my heart pounding and being out of breath.

I work in a Hospital so got the full works regards tests and it came out I was low in Vitamin D. Took some Vit D supplements and after about a 2 weeks I felt much better.

Not saying yours is that but might be the case?

1. any problems with teeth or gums ?
Get them sorted by
a. Going to Dentist
b. Going to Hygentist

2. Is your thyroid function normal ?

You realise the ranges that are normal for blood tests are all but useless if you are training/fit/an athlete.

Thanks. Over training had not been on the radar. Mainly as I’d already backed off quite a bit. That said life has been busier than normal so I’ll raise over training with my doctor.

ghostlymachine – That’s a very good point. I don’t go to the doctor’s very often but this past few months have made me realise that GPs don’t always have a grasp of just how much exercise / how fit some people are. Before this episode, excluding general dog walking/commuting I did about 8-10 hours proper exercise a week, and I don’t consider myself ‘sporty’.

I could do with finding a GP who is also a triathlete or something, so they understand what I’m going on about.

You realise the ranges that are normal for blood tests are all but useless if you are training/fit/an athlete

I’ve always wondered about this.

I’ve had periods where I’ve felt rough my blood tests have always come back positive. But i’ve always thought it would have been good to have some test before I started feeling rough or at least when I’m feeling well to base line them off.

I don’t go to the doctor’s very often but this past few months have made me realise that GPs don’t always have a grasp

They are generalists who deal with common/general problems. They can’t and don’t know everything. It’s times like this you need to find a specialist and pay for it rather than get kicked down the road by the NHS who have other priorities.

Please do ask to be tested for Lyme Disease. Your average GP probably won’t see a case in their lifetime. Your symptoms do fit (taking account of 33% of cases not having the typical tell tale rash)

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Lyme-disease/Pages/Introduction.aspx#symptoms

Combination of increased frequency of colds and heart rate that doesn’t want to go up does sound a lot like over training. 8-10hrs/wk is definitely enough to lead down that road if intensity is too high, or if rest/nutrition are insufficient.
Have you got any other over training symptoms like apathy, irritability, feeling gloomy/depressed, change of sleeping pattern?

I’d be tempted to put the bike away for a month and forget about it whilst continuing to explore other options with GP.

I’m tending to agree with that diagnosis, at least as something to consider. Training, even at a “normal” level which benefits your fitness suppresses your immune system, making it more likely for you to pick stuff up and illnesses to be worse and last longer when you get them (having said that I’ve never been so ill so often as since I stopped doing huge amounts of training, but I’ll put that down to having kids!) What’s more it’s the combination of stresses, not just the amount of training you’re doing.

GPs are very variable in terms of their appreciation of this sort of thing – I’m lucky that mine (well one of the ones in the group practice, the one I’ll choose to have an appointment with) has done competitive sport.

I feel that I’ve had similar symptoms, albeit over a shorter period. They have reoccurred perhaps 2-3 times in the last 5 years. The most recent was when I felt I’d reached something of a ‘peak’ in terms of fitness. I’ve since had achey muscles, stomach upset, some episodes of chest tightening and a physical inability to push myself to train. I put this down to fatigue.

When I regularly played football, I always took a complete month off at the end of the season. Plus I invariably had a mid-season break either because I was injured or the weather prevented matches being played. However, since ‘retiring’ I just train constantly. Not necessarily with any particular focus (maybe one or two individual events per year). I think this lack of structure (particularly the lack of rest/recovery), isn’t really ideal.

Find another Dr.

I felt like that a while ago, found a Dr who did Triathlons so he was interested in helping me get to the bottom of it.

Rather than the previous Dr’s who saw fat unhealthy people all day and figured I was still alive and breathing, so didn’t bother with my moaning.

The norm that they view the world from is far from the healthy sort of world some of us live in.

I cant diagnose you, but I can tell you from experience there are likely to be people out there who can. Not all Dr.s are good ones.

1. New doctor. Hope it sorts itself out, sounds like you need to speak to a sports psychiatrist too, they could/should be able to advise you on your best path of action
2. Over training sounds like how it all started. I understand that mental stress affects physical performance too. So a busy life can have a physical impact in sport and rapidly overload a training program.

+1 for finding a doctor who’s involved with sport.

I’ve set all sorts of alarm bells off when I’ve had 12 leads hooked up to me by junior doctors, confused/worried faces – results sent off to a cardiologist. Only to have them to then say “oh yeah, you exercise a fair bit – well that’s normal then”.

Sounds like malaria or maybe cat aids?

I think the advice above to put the bike away for a month and meanwhile get the other stuff sorted is really good.

A pal of mine had Lyme’s disease and took her ages to get over it, so well worth having that checked out just in case.

Someone else I know, also a keen cyclist, recently had issues with iron levels in his blood – so again worth asked for them to run some tests. This particular guy was in a similar situation to yourself re good fitness etc and then had an issue with tiredness.

Why not try asking totally uneducated nobodies on an internet forum (like STW) for a diagnosis?

It’s clearly cat AIDS.

I had somewhat similar symptoms for 6 months before eventually being diagnosed with pulmonary embolism, clots in my legs were travelling up into my lungs.

Might be worth seeing if the GP will do a quick blood oxygen test after exercising, eg running up and down a flight of steps a few times.

Thanks all for the replies. I’ve made a few notes to go through with my doctors next time I see them. In the meantime I’m going to have a read up on over training.

With regard to blood tests it’s where you are in the range that’s important. The NHS has been known to recommend a low figure for some conditions such as vitamin B12, pernicious anaemia.

As already mentioned vitamin D is worth checking out, as is ferritin. You may want to read up on magnesium.

This website is useful:

http://www.labtestsonline.org.uk

Drink enough milk? Too many energy gels?

Mono ?

What are you hoping to get from milk?

My recent attempt to utilise the NHS GP system resulted in a change of GP but also a desicion take control of my own details, medical records, blood test results etc.

I doubt anyone else will be as intrested in my health as I am.

My recent attempt to utilise the NHS GP system resulted in a change of GP but also a desicion take control of my own details, medical records, blood test results etc.

I doubt anyone else will be as intrested in my health as I am.

Welcome to the ‘informed patients’ club wilburt. You’re spot on and you need to be your own physician. There’s so much out there to read, sign up to PubMed for some good stuff.

There’s so much out there to read, sign up to PubMed for some good stuff.

And instantly get overwhelmed with conflicting trials and non-repeatable results from journal articles that most laymen will end up incorrectly reading. The OP will also end up thinking that he/she has cancer, cat aids and some obscure genetic disorder.

Cochrane is a better bet.

Any change in your urine colour, or a sugar-puffs smell when you use a urinal ?

Don’t be silly Tom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochrane_(organisation)

http://www.cochranelibrary.com/

These people do the reviews and meta-analysis, so you don’t have to work out what is bad science or plain quackery.

Wiki for laymen for everything else, there is absolutely no reason to go through thousands of obscure experiments to get a diagnosis.

I understand the complexities as well as you, which is even more reason to become informed about my own physiology and make sure as well as I can any problem are spotted early and dealt with as well as possible.

It’s my body, I quite like it so I’m not going to leave the monitoring of its well being to a series of dubiously qualified disinterested people whatever their title.

You can do whatever you like.

It’s probably a virus! Have a fortnight off and relax.

Scottish doctor and author who’s upsetting the Establishment:

https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/