Training & Nutrition - overtraining - muscle burnout

OK, i did a long MTB ride yesterday (it was a public holiday) and my legs were totally dead from the beginning of the ride. I had no power and could not ride fast and my friends whom i usually wait for had to wait minutes at the top of each climb for me...

has this happened to anyone else? i've had energy burnout before - where your heart-rate won't go up or you just feel dead, but never muscle burnout like this... my heart-rate wouldn't max like usual, but in general my cardio system was OK and i was just below lactacte threshold (145-165 range, LT is 165) for almost 2hrs total in my 6hr ride yesterday, but my legs were burning the whole time and i simply had not power. (i'm a sprinter and power rider, so this is strange for me). then at the end of the ride, my whole body was dead b/c i had to work so hard to do the ride w/o any real muscle power. in the past i have had overtaining problems, but this year i have been tring to watch my overtraining more closely...

i already have good base training this year with about 2800km and 12,000 vertical meters climbing (40,000ft vertical) total since Jan 15, and then have been doing strenuous training tours (plus 1 race) twice a week for the last 2 months. until yesterday i had been improving in strength...

OK... so here's what i did the last few days:
Sunday: did an average MTB tour in the Slps (1200 vertical meters, 60km)
Monday: only my daily 10kmx2 bike commute (rest day)
Tuesday: my commute and 1.5hrs race-pace inline skating (19 minutes over my lactate threshold) and had sore muscles from skating (these muscles aren't trained so well since i just started skating this season about 3 weeks ago)
Wednesday: my 'normal' weekly MTB training group ride that i lead - about 600m vertical and 70km (18min over LT)
Thursday: so Wednesday night i got back at 10pm from my ride and then woke up at 7am the next day for the Thursday tour described above

So is this probably overtraining? how many days off do i need? i had planned Friday rest day and Saturday tour (i can't ride Sunday b/c i have conflicting plans). am i better off skipping Saturday? that means no riding 5 days Friday-Tuesday other than my commuting... or should i not ride and cross-train or completely rest???

i'm thinking it might take a good 2 weeks before i'm really recovered... any ideas on how to handle this or what to expect??? yesterday was also mentally difficult - in Lance's cancer book he describes a ride between his Chemo treatments where he feels 'OK' on the bike and thinks he's still got it and then an old lady whizzes by on a climb and he is demoralized... although not nearly so bad, i can relate...

training and overtraining is not only the time you spend on the bike, it is as much the time you spend off of the bike. you didn't mention what was going on in your life (60 hrs/wk work, etc) -

no matter how diligent you are about preventing bike burnout, there is life burnout. i never believed it before, but it is true.

there are stress hormones released when you aren't well rested, and it is impossible to override these hormones by just resting. it takes time to have it wash through you.

RiPHRaPH,

yeah, good point.

in my case i don't think it's the problem since my job is going quite well and i work a little less than 8hrs/day...

and we've had 2 holidays in the last 2 weeks plus my 30-days vacation per year (a big plus working in Germany!)

as usual there are personal decisions to make like "what am i doing with my life?" and "is my girlfriend 'the one'?" but in general less stress than usual...

Try working a couple of slow days into your weekly commuting routine. (Rest does not have to be total, but it is important.) Use lower gears than usual, at the same pedal cadence, and enjoy the scenery. This should boost your performance on your fast days.

It seems to me that you might be having burn out. You said that you are going over your lactate threshold for something like 20 minutes per day for something like 4 days running. That is quite a bit.

Generally, if I go over my lactate threshold, on one day, I ride easy the next day. I never do it more than 2 days in a row. You are trying to go 5 days in a row. I don't think I ever tried to do that.

I believe burnout has less to do with number of miles and more to do with intensity. Freddy Hoffman averages over 100 miles per day, but I think he is probably under his lactate threshold on most days. I have done a number of 500+ mile weeks but usually when I am doing big miles, I don't fool around with high intensity. Nothing is worse than burning up your legs when you have to ride 80 miles per day for the next 3 days.

I think what happens when you are over the lactate threshold is your muscles get stressed and torn and a little damaged. Do that for a long enough period of time and you go out and you just don't have anything when you try to "give it the gas".

well, i took 3 days completely off from cycling (Friday-Sunday), and didn't do any strenuous sport Friday or Saturday and then just upper-body weight-lifting and moderate inline skating Sunday... mostly it was an unusual for me rest weekend.

i feel much stronger today (Monday) and rode in to work today. Tonight i will take a short 1-2 hr ride, and then Tuesday ride hard with a local club on the road and then Wednesday again hard MTB group ride... and Thursday again rest...

wow, a good indicator that i think i'm recovered: my resting pulse was down to 38 yesterday which is lower than what i usually see -- i guess 2-3 days of rest really make a difference.

i'll report back after the Tuesday or Wednesday rides - whether i feel like my muscle strenght and power has returned - hopefully so (or better yet even stronger!)

wow, that was just so morally devastating last Thursday when i had no power

I am guessing you use a good recovery drink, we were discussing Endurox R4 in another thread. It works, give it a shot if you haven't used it.