Hypertension meds

I don't have experience with endurance sports and blood pressure medication, but I've had personal training clients on them. If they are beta blockers, they can suppress your HR response to exercise. I caution them not to gauge their effort level by their HR. I would think that it would impair endurance sport performance, so I'm curious to see other responses.

I'm on Avapro which isn't a Beta blocker.  I didn't start endurance sports until after I was on it so I don't have a before and after.  I can tell you it doesn't keep my hr down during exercise and I can't tell the difference on days I forgot to take it and days I remember to take it.

My husband is a runner, and on a medication that is both an alpha and beta blocker.  Because of this medication his heart rate never really goes up when running. He biggest problem is when it is hot and very  sunny out.  He now tends to overheat faster, and gets very dizzy when he is out in the blazing sun for a long run.  He still runs distance, he just plans the times to go when it is cooler, or plans a route that has some shade to lesson the side effects.

Beta blockers have the heart rate effects previously described.  Diuretics, at least according to my doc, could cause dehydration issues for longer races.  No insurmountable, but hydration becomes more important.  ACE inhibitors (Altace) and angiotensin receptor blockers (Valsartan) both work well and, at least for me, don't have any significant side effects that impact endurance athletics.

Cheers all.

I have had great luck with calcium channel blockers - started on the beta blockers and had the same HR issues noted above 

Yep, me too.  I started my endurance athletics taking a beta blocker and once I got in decent shape I figured out that it was holding me back.  I went to my cardiologist and told him I needed a med that wouldn't impact my heart rate.  He suggested a different beta blocker saying the newer ones wouldn't have the same impact.  He was wrong.  I went back a month later and told him he had wasted a month of my training and asked for something else.  He then put me on Amlodipine which is a calcium channel blocker.  I have had great success with this med but it does not control my BP as well as the beta blocker.  It does keep it in the acceptable range so I'm happy and the cardiologist is happy.  Good luck to you!

I'm an internist and endurance athlete. No official medical opinion here without knowing you personally but...High Blood pressure is a serious disease but easily treated in most patients. Believe me, I struggle to get my patients to exercise and lose weight at all.
Agree, I wouldn't put an endurance athlete or a younger patient on a beta-blocker because of the possible blunting effect to HR and other side effects--low libido... and especially if they used a HRM to monitor performance. Diuretics bad idea for obvious reasons and some people get a sun-sensitivity rash from some.
There are other meds that work very well in younger patients(I don't know why I'm assuming your young--but anyway). Other posters mentioned ACE-I/ARBs/Calcium-Channel antagonists)--all these work very well. Very few side effects and benefit compliance with just being once a day. plenty of cheaper generic substitutions also.
Follow-up with your family doc and ask questions about all the meds.
One general recommendation: buy a BP monitor to use at home and perhaps before/after exercise to see what the numbers are doing. Be careful with too much sodium intake as well--both in regular diet and supplements during racing--check a see what it does to your BP. Be careful with the vino/beer if you imbibe.
Good Luck.
Doc