Overtraining?
 

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[Closed] Overtraining?

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The last few weeks I have started getting pretty fit compared to what I have been the last couple of years, nothing competitive just running and road riding with the local Tri club and commuting to work by bike prob x 2 each week, 40 miles a day.

Legs have felt really strong and no issues.

I went out on Thursday evening with the club on a sort of mini TT to beet the sunset. My legs felt strong until the last couple of miles where they suddenly died.

Friday I felt sh!t at work just really tired. yesterday I took the dog for a walk and was covered in sweat, and had back ache. Today I cut the lawn and had to rest after, and the back ache got worse. Nearly already fallen asleep this evening and feel better in a dark room.

I’d say I was getting a virus but no ill effects other than exhaustion.

I thought over training would manifest with tired legs, gradual drop off in performance?


 
Posted : 08/09/2019 8:58 pm
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Do you use a power meter and/or heart rate monitor on your bigger effort rides? There's plenty of sites that offer fitness/fatigue/form such as https://power-meter.cc/home based off power, using slightly different formulas and overtraining thresholds, that will suggest you are in need of some rest days or very easy recovery rides.

I've kicked my ride frequency and effort up a notch or six since late July compared to what I've done most weeks since early March, after finally being illness and injury free. 10 rest days in that period where I didn't ride my power meter equipped road bike bike, typically ~50 TSS each ride day, with usually one ride day each week where I did 100-162 TSS including ~2 hours on the turbo on Saturday.

Yesterday I felt very flat, especially after ~30mins of Yorksire on Zwift https://www.strava.com/activities/2690610759/analysis , which left me completely drained for the rest of the afternoon (40 TSS).

So in the evening, I did three small recovery rides back to back for changes of scenery https://www.strava.com/activities/2691727791/analysis https://www.strava.com/activities/2691799215/analysis https://www.strava.com/activities/2691876964/analysis (which totalled 21 TSS)

According to site, I'm at -28 form for the last two days, verging or passing the overtraining threshold IIRC (-30) without taking my postie work exercise including short cycle commute into consideration. I won't do another hard session until at least tomorrow.


 
Posted : 09/09/2019 6:25 am
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There's some handy information about markers on the Training Peaks blog:

https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/how-to-know-if-you-are-overtraining/


 
Posted : 09/09/2019 7:25 am
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Sounds unlikely to be over-training (unless your runs and rides with the local Tri club are high intensity and you have no rest days in your week). Seems more likely to be a bug/illness


 
Posted : 09/09/2019 7:53 am
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Sounds like you are ill..............but:

Take some rest. Use a Powermeter & HRM and record your training so you can see your fitness / recovery / overload. Otherwise you are just guessing or asking the internet.


 
Posted : 09/09/2019 8:12 am
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Ahh but overtraining makes you more susceptible to illness so its probably a bit of both 🙂

You do need rest days thou.


 
Posted : 09/09/2019 8:34 am
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"relative" rest days needed, not always days off training but much lower intensity.
Over training has different symptoms with different people. I used to find that I was exhausted (although still training OK) but couldn't sleep.
I agree that it sounds like a bit of a bug.


 
Posted : 09/09/2019 8:42 am
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I take my resting HR every morning, plus look at the lowest HR overnight - it's a rock solid indicator of stress / recovery. If I do a hard ride my resting HR will be up a few beats and take a few days to get back to normal. I've also started using HRV (Heart rate variability), but that seems harder to interpret and I don't agree at all with my Polar Vantage's interpretation of it...


 
Posted : 09/09/2019 9:14 am

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