Feeling light headed and sick during ride

G'day.

I ride about 130km a week (spread out over 4 32km rides per week).

For the last two weeks I haven't been riding, because of crappy weather.

But I jumped on the bike yesterday and after not exercising for two weeks I could feel the effects of it.

I was pushing pretty hard, and I started to feel a little light headed and sick in my stomach.

I had just eaten a big breakfast about 30-60mins before hand as well.

Do you think is normal?

Should I not have pushed so hard during my first ride back?

 

Rule of thumb: the amount of time you've been off the bike is the amount of time you should calculate back in your training program. For example, if you fall ill during training and you stay off the bike for two weeks, take your last day of training before you fell ill and work back two weeks, then start training from there again.
The big breakfast 30-60 minutes before the ride is not a good idea.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about feeling sick as I expect this was down to the meal! I agree with VO2 that you shouldn't have worked so hard on your first ride back as this can be damaging. When you have time off training, some of the training adaptations that occured during normal training fade away. As you had only a short period of time off, these faded adaptations will only have been the most tempary adaptations (like muscle enzymes, plasma volume, neural, etc.) and will come back pretty soon. Even so expect a small reduction in your aerobic fitness, performance during sustained sprints and ability to pedal smoothly.

You will feel far better after three or four days in the saddle!

 

Cheers for the replies fella's.

I had that first ride on Wednesday morning, and today (Friday) I had the same ride, (32km) and I really aced it.

I was feeling just normal again, on the Wed ride I did it in 1hr20min, today I took 1hr10min (which is what I usually average).

Thanks for the help guys.

 

Another thing I neglected to mention in this thread, the importance of warming up properly first. Some people use stretches, but I generally spin in an easier gear until my legs tell me they're ready.

 

When warming up try to build up the intensity slowly over 15 minutes, the idea is not to shock the system. You should go gradualy from rest to race intensity. There is some research out there that static stretches can actualy cause neuromuscular fatigue, so you might want to think about leaving them until after the event (particularly if its going to be fast from the gun)!