Good afternoon chaps,
I'm rather concerned about my general health and fitness and would like to request advice from some fellow cyclists.
Last April or so I began noticing that my cycling performance was deteriorating. I grew tired more quickly, became out of breath, and was unable to sustain the usual average and sprinting speeds.
As the spring temperatures began to increase, I also found myself sweating a great deal more than usual, and often feeling a 'prickly heat'/itchy sensation on my body and limbs when out cycling or doing stronger forms of yoga.
I'm 29 and lead what many would consider to be a healthy lifestyle. I don't smoke or drink, eat a mostly raw-food vegetarian diet (albeit including egg yolks and salmon sashimi), cycle 25-30 km a day (more at weekends), and practise various forms of yoga 3-4 times a week. A year or two ago on a summer's Sunday, I would cycle 15 km in the morning, attend an outdoor morning yoga class, ride another 50km around the lake, attend another yoga class, then ride back into town and enjoy a BBQ with friends. I always had plenty of energy, which I attributed to my healthy diet and lifestyle. I was really happy.
Anyway, back to last Spring, my sweating and lack of physical energy was really starting to worry me, so a visited a local naika clinic and explained my symptoms. The doctor performed various blood, urine, and stool tests, along with an X-ray, breathing performance test, and ultrasound. Everything came back negative - he even complemented me on my health, suggesting that I had the breathing capacity of an 18 year old. I visited him on several more occasions, each time to collect another test result, only to be told that everything was perfectly normal. I ask him why he felt I was sweating so excessively, and had limited energy - he believed it was simply a case of this year's summer being hotter than usual. I've lived in Japan for over 7 years, so have lived through my fair share of hot summers, but never had I experienced these symptoms when exercising.
Then disaster - I had an accident while out on my daily lunchtime ride (as documented in this thread), so my concerns switched away from my lack of energy to focus on my injured ankle.
I started light cycling three months or so after the accident, usually just riding to work and purchasing groceries etc. After being given the all-clear by my (ankle) doctor, I gradually stepped-up my cycling until I was more or less back to my regular daily riding routine. However, I was still lacking energy, breathing heavily during light exercise, and sweating a great deal - even though the hottest part of the summer had passed. so I returned to my initial naika doctor, who referred me to one larger hospitals in the city centre. Again, I explained my symptoms, underwent more blood and urine tests, in addition to an MRI scan and an endoscopy. But still nothing - according to their results I was absolutely fine, yet my health hadn't improved. Eventually I exhausted all of the tests available at that hospital, and was more or less told there wasn't nothing else that could be done for me.
So I returned to my riding again, and even though my ankle still didn't feel 100%, just continued to ride daily in an effort to regain my strength and fitness.
I lost around 6kg in the weeks following my accident (presumably through lack of exercise), and with limited mobility in my ankle, I decided to try swimming instead of practising yoga. Swimming was tough - I quickly grew out of breath, and would occasionally feel the same prickly sensation on my skin (as if my body was try to sweat, yet in the water...), however I believed it was the best form of exercise to regain my health and fitness.
At the beginning of November I joined a nearby sports club (closer than the public pools) and have been making a habit of swimming every day, straight after work. I swim breast stroke; 25 lengths (or a 25m pool), then a five minute break stretching in the water, followed by another 25. I hoped that by maintaining this routine, in addition to my 25k of cycling and floor exercises at home, my energy would gradually return. However, the truth is, I actually feel weaker now that I ever have done. This morning I went out riding and it was a real struggle - pedalling into the chilly coastal wind. Even when I reached my halfway point, cycled over the bridge and returned home with the tail wind, I didn't really enjoy the ride. After this, I stopped-off at the gym for a swim, but felt so tired after my 25 lengths just decided to call it a day, have lunch at home, then try again in the afternoon/evening. I was just swimming breast stroke, slowly, but at the end of each stroke was left breathing very heavily. Honestly, if felt like I was 69 not 29!
Well, I've decided to try visiting another hospital, this time a large university hospital in the north of the city. I will also take time off work to concentrate on my health.
Here are a few other points that may be worth mentioning:
- when cycling, my comfortable cruising speed is approximately 25km/h, whereas when I felt healthy it was closer to 35km/h. Moreover, I find it much harder to step-up a gear, and push to a sprinting speed. It's if I have no energy...nothing in the tank. Like I've already been out riding all day, when I'm only half an hour or so into my journey.
- I feel very cold, my hands and feet are icy, and the skin on my finger tips is dry and cracked. So I have to wear lots of layers of clothing in order to keep warm. However, once I'm riding, I'll start to sweat (even if my body still isn't that hot).
- I've noticed a nervous twitch/tick when cycling and swimming...usually when I try to push myself to go faster, or whenever I'm straining by cycling into the wind.
- As noted above, I've lost around 6kg since my accident, and currently weight 66kg. Because of my lifestyle, I've always been skinny, but had quite a toned body, thanks to the yoga and floor exercises/stretches. These days however, I feel like I'm also losing muscle tone, and my face is puffier.
Okay, well, I think that's everything. My apologies for this lengthy post. I realise that this doesn't have a great deal to do with cycling per se, however I know that there are folks here who are very knowledgeable about health and fitness, and being passionate about cycling, and living in Japan...I wanted to post something, just in case others have experienced similar health issues, and can perhaps suggest ways to overcome them. Good health and fitness is incredibly important to me - as I'm sure it is to everyone, so my current condition is terribly concerning.
Many thanks for reading!
Cheers,
James
x
I'm rather concerned about my general health and fitness and would like to request advice from some fellow cyclists.
Last April or so I began noticing that my cycling performance was deteriorating. I grew tired more quickly, became out of breath, and was unable to sustain the usual average and sprinting speeds.
As the spring temperatures began to increase, I also found myself sweating a great deal more than usual, and often feeling a 'prickly heat'/itchy sensation on my body and limbs when out cycling or doing stronger forms of yoga.
I'm 29 and lead what many would consider to be a healthy lifestyle. I don't smoke or drink, eat a mostly raw-food vegetarian diet (albeit including egg yolks and salmon sashimi), cycle 25-30 km a day (more at weekends), and practise various forms of yoga 3-4 times a week. A year or two ago on a summer's Sunday, I would cycle 15 km in the morning, attend an outdoor morning yoga class, ride another 50km around the lake, attend another yoga class, then ride back into town and enjoy a BBQ with friends. I always had plenty of energy, which I attributed to my healthy diet and lifestyle. I was really happy.
Anyway, back to last Spring, my sweating and lack of physical energy was really starting to worry me, so a visited a local naika clinic and explained my symptoms. The doctor performed various blood, urine, and stool tests, along with an X-ray, breathing performance test, and ultrasound. Everything came back negative - he even complemented me on my health, suggesting that I had the breathing capacity of an 18 year old. I visited him on several more occasions, each time to collect another test result, only to be told that everything was perfectly normal. I ask him why he felt I was sweating so excessively, and had limited energy - he believed it was simply a case of this year's summer being hotter than usual. I've lived in Japan for over 7 years, so have lived through my fair share of hot summers, but never had I experienced these symptoms when exercising.
Then disaster - I had an accident while out on my daily lunchtime ride (as documented in this thread), so my concerns switched away from my lack of energy to focus on my injured ankle.
I started light cycling three months or so after the accident, usually just riding to work and purchasing groceries etc. After being given the all-clear by my (ankle) doctor, I gradually stepped-up my cycling until I was more or less back to my regular daily riding routine. However, I was still lacking energy, breathing heavily during light exercise, and sweating a great deal - even though the hottest part of the summer had passed. so I returned to my initial naika doctor, who referred me to one larger hospitals in the city centre. Again, I explained my symptoms, underwent more blood and urine tests, in addition to an MRI scan and an endoscopy. But still nothing - according to their results I was absolutely fine, yet my health hadn't improved. Eventually I exhausted all of the tests available at that hospital, and was more or less told there wasn't nothing else that could be done for me.
So I returned to my riding again, and even though my ankle still didn't feel 100%, just continued to ride daily in an effort to regain my strength and fitness.
I lost around 6kg in the weeks following my accident (presumably through lack of exercise), and with limited mobility in my ankle, I decided to try swimming instead of practising yoga. Swimming was tough - I quickly grew out of breath, and would occasionally feel the same prickly sensation on my skin (as if my body was try to sweat, yet in the water...), however I believed it was the best form of exercise to regain my health and fitness.
At the beginning of November I joined a nearby sports club (closer than the public pools) and have been making a habit of swimming every day, straight after work. I swim breast stroke; 25 lengths (or a 25m pool), then a five minute break stretching in the water, followed by another 25. I hoped that by maintaining this routine, in addition to my 25k of cycling and floor exercises at home, my energy would gradually return. However, the truth is, I actually feel weaker now that I ever have done. This morning I went out riding and it was a real struggle - pedalling into the chilly coastal wind. Even when I reached my halfway point, cycled over the bridge and returned home with the tail wind, I didn't really enjoy the ride. After this, I stopped-off at the gym for a swim, but felt so tired after my 25 lengths just decided to call it a day, have lunch at home, then try again in the afternoon/evening. I was just swimming breast stroke, slowly, but at the end of each stroke was left breathing very heavily. Honestly, if felt like I was 69 not 29!
Well, I've decided to try visiting another hospital, this time a large university hospital in the north of the city. I will also take time off work to concentrate on my health.
Here are a few other points that may be worth mentioning:
- when cycling, my comfortable cruising speed is approximately 25km/h, whereas when I felt healthy it was closer to 35km/h. Moreover, I find it much harder to step-up a gear, and push to a sprinting speed. It's if I have no energy...nothing in the tank. Like I've already been out riding all day, when I'm only half an hour or so into my journey.
- I feel very cold, my hands and feet are icy, and the skin on my finger tips is dry and cracked. So I have to wear lots of layers of clothing in order to keep warm. However, once I'm riding, I'll start to sweat (even if my body still isn't that hot).
- I've noticed a nervous twitch/tick when cycling and swimming...usually when I try to push myself to go faster, or whenever I'm straining by cycling into the wind.
- As noted above, I've lost around 6kg since my accident, and currently weight 66kg. Because of my lifestyle, I've always been skinny, but had quite a toned body, thanks to the yoga and floor exercises/stretches. These days however, I feel like I'm also losing muscle tone, and my face is puffier.
Okay, well, I think that's everything. My apologies for this lengthy post. I realise that this doesn't have a great deal to do with cycling per se, however I know that there are folks here who are very knowledgeable about health and fitness, and being passionate about cycling, and living in Japan...I wanted to post something, just in case others have experienced similar health issues, and can perhaps suggest ways to overcome them. Good health and fitness is incredibly important to me - as I'm sure it is to everyone, so my current condition is terribly concerning.
Many thanks for reading!
Cheers,
James
x