Welcome to Overtraining
 

It's a term I see thrown around on here a whole lot-- it's almost buzzword territory. But as someone sitting right in the middle of it, I can tell you this: you'll never think you've overtrained. You'll know.

I recently finished a streak of riding days-- 69 days, from July 27 to October 3. In that span, I covered 2,655 miles and climbed 97k feet at an average of 17mph. It was a perfect storm of bad decisions. For the bulk of those days my wife was busy with work and life, so I didn't have her to ride with on the weekends-- she is my recovery partner (I get to ride as her slower pace.) Riding solo without her, I would just ride as hard as I felt comfortable doing, which was apparently too hard. So think of it as 69 straight riding days with almost no recovery whatsoever. It's pretty (not) great. After the streak of riding days, I'm now (not) enjoying the fallout.

Persistent muscle soreness? Check.
Persistent fatigue? Check.
Elevated resting HR? Check.
Reduced heart rate variability? Double-check.

Also: stiffness, confusion/loss of concentration* (particularly in the morning,) constantly feeling thirsty, and yeah, troubles falling asleep, despite being tired ALL THE TIME. When I wake up in the morning, my arms and legs feel like I just got back from the gym, despite having ridden a grand total of 45 miles in the past 6 days.

Oh, and there are warning signs, plenty of them. You just need to ignore them, like I did. Several rides, I was unable to get my HR above 150bpm, despite level of effort-- I didn't see anything near threshold (LTHR: 172bpm) for nearly a month. The persistent muscle soreness is only just now starting to subside in the legs, but remains in my upper and lower arms. You'd think that buying and applying Ben-Gay to my legs nightly would have set off some kind of mental alarm. But no. Too dumb to learn.

So overtraining folks, it's not about intensity, duration, or time-- it's about the perfect combination of all three. At my level of intensity/output I was probably wiped out by day 50. But I kept riding. Overtraining won't knock you off the bike. You won't wake up incapable of getting in the saddle. I just discounted the soreness and fatigue as normal, just something to be dealt with.

Hopefully, I know better now.

*this took far too long to type, as I spent at least half the time going back and correcting typos. My hands are as asleep as my brain.

Hopefully you are just in the over-reaching stages vs full blown over-training.... I realized this weekend i was getting into the over-reaching.... so taking a couple days off the bike...

How to Tell When You're Over-Reaching or Over-Training | ACTIVE

It's the easiest mistake to make for the self-coached. A really easy way to get there is to follow a training plan not written by . . . your paid, personal coach.

Besides recording resting HR as suggested in scrming's link, it's also good to record both standing and orthostatic HR:
https://www.naseinc.com/blog/a-simpl...covery-status/
Orthostatic HR is the difference between resting and standing HRs.

For instance, during periods of consistent exercise, my resting HR will be 44-49, my standing HR will be 54-60. If I become overreached, my resting HR might be 52, but my standing HR will keep rising the longer I stand, going up to maybe 70. When I see standing HRs in the high 60's, it's time to take a day off or at least only do 45' of Z1 on my rollers and see what happens the next day.

Of course the HR's described above are mine only. Your responses will be different. It may take you a month or so of monitoring to see what they do and what the danger zones seem to be.

Sometimes my standing HR will only be high for 1 day, sometimes for several days. I know that if I were to try a hard effort workout, my working HR is going to be low although . . . it's often possible for me to go out, notice that my riding HR is low, but if I continue to push it repeatedly, it'll eventually come up to where I can do some good efforts. However this is almost always a bad idea. That just extends the necessary recovery: no fitness gained.

For me, sore muscles aren't much of a tell for anything. It's normal for me to have sore legs continuously for weeks during bouts of heavy training. However they are never sore on the bike if I'm getting enough protein and rest.

NOTE: Hormones cause your heart to respond to stressful exercise by increasing its rate of beating. The difference between overreaching and overtraining is that in overtraining you get "adrenal insufficiency:"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3648788/
Your adrenal glands get tired. You've worn them out. They are much slower to recover than your muscles. That's the reason that overtraining takes so long to reverse. It can be a serious health issue!

I should also note that it is possible to become overreached even without doing any high HR intensity. I recently returned from a 10-day backpack trip where for 2 weeks I was exercising 20 hours/week, double my usual weekly hours. Though my HR never got out of zone 1, I returned with HRs typical of overreaching and had to take a few days off. The usual thru-hiker schedule is to hike for 4-5 days, then take 2 off while cleaning up, fueling up, and resupplying. Thus I doubt that this becomes a frequent issue for them, though I have talked to hikers who were forced off the trail for a couple weeks at a time to recover.

One last note: I have a riding buddy who has it inscribed on his Rider ID that his normal resting HR is 40, not to alarm the medics if he should need such aid.

I spent one winter doing a massive build. All easy miles, but huge miles. 19, 21, 23, 19 hours, then 21, 23, 25, 21 hours, then 23, 25, 27, 23 and finally 25, 27, 29... and I cracked. Halfway through a looping four hour ride in the middle of my 29 hour week I crawled into a ditch 5 miles from home and called for a ride because I couldn't even pedal anymore.

I ended up totally screwed. I put on ten pounds. My max and LT heart rates (and hr at exertion across the board) dropped by 10 bpm (and have never recovered). I started getting severe cramping like issues in my legs (similar to compartment syndrome) and I had to visit a few specialists. In the end, it took like four months totally off the bike followed by another few months of hardly riding. Finally, about 10-12 months later I came around to a similar level I was at before, heavier and with a lower hr. A year later I couldn't handle it any more and quit entirely for a long time.

You've got to really push through a helluva lot to overtrain, and when you do your body gets properly jacked up. Worst year for cycling (or anything really) I ever had.

I think it would be good for the site if more people contributed narratives like the one above. How not to do it.

I've never overtrained, only overreached. One summer in my mid-50s I got long-interval religion. Wow, did that work! Bam, I got faster. I kept at it and then Bam, I got slower. My HR didn't come up anymore. I was using smaller and smaller cogs on my hills. So being me, I researched it, found out what was wrong and rested until I felt better. Wasted a whole month of my summer by the time I got my fitness back again.

So that was really good, actually. I learned something with just enough of a cost that I remembered it, learned how to prevent it, and haven't repeated it.

That's what I'm hoping, that I can at least learn from it. The urge to ride every day is still there, so I hope I can at least train myself to dial the intensity/duration back if I'm planning to get back to riding 5+ days a week. Most of my rides were middle-Z2 stuff in terms of HR/power, but I averaged nearly 40 miles a day, and had a couple of 17mph centuries in there, plus a century the day following the end of the streak-- and I really think that was the one that pushed me over.

I felt pretty good all day, but the heart rate was definitely depressed, power was down, and if I had been in a right mind I wouldn't have done it. But I am one to often compound my questionable decisions. For now, it's mostly about cutting back. I'm going to be strictly limiting myself to rides under 90 minutes, and a minimum of 2 days a week of rest-- and by rest I mean actually not riding. I had gotten to the point where I was considering a "recovery day" a 20-mile loop route with less than 1,000 feet of climbing... at 19-20mph. If on any day I want to ride more miles, I'm going to have to keep a close eye on the intensity.

I guess this gives me a somewhat plausible reason to avoid big hills for awhile, at least.

I signed up for Training Peaks the other day. Came with 7 days of free premium features. I linked my Garmin Connect account and it pulled in some historical data. Here's what I found interesting... So there were a couple of races recently where my performance was definitely not up to par and there was also a race where i did really well. Sure enough looking at the Training Peaks graphs, it did a good job of predicting my performance for those races both good and bad! Up until now my "training" has been completely lacking any real structure... Basically guessing when i should start tapering and by how much. It became apparent pretty quickly the value in using something like Training Peaks to bring more structure and guidance to my training. I've got two more races this season and I've laid out my training calendar for the rest of the season so that I should properly recovered for those two races...

I hate to admit that I was once this stupid....I was facing turning 50 back in 1996. All winter I rode my rollers with intensity. I had decided that on my birthday in June I would ride my 20 mi. TT @20 mph. In April I got back on the road and did that route 6 days a week as a TT. That was all I did. No other riding. On my birthday I hit it full tilt and did exactly 20 mph. I was so burned out that I stopped riding for 8 yes. Really stupid.

Absolutely TrainingPeaks has been wonderful for giving my riding more structure. Strongly advise going Premium so you get the Performance Manager chart on the Dashboard.

Instead of relatively arbitrary easy days or weeks or rest periods, my experience is simply to go by either resting and standing HR or heart rate variability. Look at the training that's suggested or what you plan to do and see if that comports with how your heart is feeling it.

Yep, i went ahead i upgraded to Premium after the free trial ran out. I've got to more events left this season so I went ahead and laid out my schedule and making sure i should be in descent "form" for them.

I've usually only looked at my resting HR to judge recovery. Need to start incorporating the standing HR check.

I did create an Annual Training Plan and have been putting in next years events. Hoping for a great 2017!

How are you feeling now a couple days later? Feel yourself bouncing back a bit I hope?

We talked about this when we were at the Pizza Port a few months ago!

I seem to oscillate back and forth between feeling OK and feeling worn out. I felt really good on yesterday's ride (barely 20 miles) but completely washed out afterward-- I passed out on the couch for 2+ hours in the late afternoon. The wife was concerned and immediately scheduled me for a physical, which was this morning (good 'ol Kaiser.) They did full bloodwork, and everything is basically normal. Good BP, all of my electrolytes, liver function, all of that stuff right in the middle of the "normal" range. So I guess it's just fatigue. Lots and lots of fatigue.

Today's spin was promising, I could get my HR up into the threshold range, and recovery was really good. Did a little bit of climbing, and set a couple of PRs, even operating well below threshold. Still feeling good a few hours after, which is good-- rides lately have been followed by a delayed "drop-off," where 2-3 hours after getting off the bike, my energy level just hits the floor. Taking it one day at a time.

Dr Isotope, etc.

Yes. What you describe is real. Overexposure to cortisol induces weight gain, sleep problems and anxiety. I like your honest admission. I could have written the same actions and reactions to my story. With me it was a combination of 5:30am 28 mile training sessions, late night hockey, long weekend A rides and ... life.

It was sustainable for a while, but when it happens you shake it off... you are Superman after all.

I'm a big believer in what happens with the other 20 hours in your day when you aren't on the bike.

That said, I had to change my routine. No more playing hockey at 10:30pm on week nights. No more having set training schedules. I play and coach hockey at sane times. I go out and do what my body tells me. Sometimes it's hard intervals, sometimes it is walk the bike.

I also got a clean bill of health and not one electrolyte out of place. So I took almost a year off the bike. I changed my rides to mid-late afternoons. I learned to use ALL my gears, especially the ones that allow me to spin at 95-100 rpm's.

I bought new handlebar tape (that always works)

I took Lance's old adage to heart: you can't learn to ride fast till you learn to ride slow.

I can dial it up again, but need longer recovery times.

But it begins and ends with sleep and lots of sex.

The sex doesn't help with overtraining, but it takes your mind off of it for a while.

So you're still determined to ride everyday... this should be an evergreen thread. :D

As I seem to be completely incapable of limiting intensity, It's gotten to where I have only two methods:

1. the weekend rides with my wife are lower effort by necessity, as she only rides 1-2 days a week, and averages 15-16mph. At this point in my riding, even exhausted, 15-16mph just barely gets my average HR above 100bpm. Group rides would probably be a good option, but the idea of going out riding with strangers seems somewhat repellent to me.

2. Absolutely strict time limitations. I'm sticking to the 90 minute limit, giving myself just one solo day a week to exceed that number. Two days a week are 20 mile days, however long that takes on any given day. The rides with the wife typically last 2 to 2.5 hours, but I've had rides with her where my HR never breaks 130bpm, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Structure is really weird to me. I would typically just ride out of the driveway at ~8am and roll back in around lunch having had no set route. I would just ride for 3 or 4 hours. But I'm now pretty sure I can't keep stringing +3,000kJ effort days back to back to back. I end up paying the price. So (at least for now) I'm choosing much more limited riding miles/hours but sticking to the 5 day a week load. I was doing shorter rides all last winter, so I guess I'm being forced to taper for my own good.

Still working on coming to terms with how few miles I'm getting in (comparatively.) But some is certainly better than none.

Maybe... it sounds like it might be helpful to start taking a day off every week or so, especially since

which is a problem for me as well. Especially if I'm limited to short rides, the temptation to "make them count" by riding extra-hard is overwhelming.

Limiting intensity is key and is not that hard. Put a limit on your breathing/HR/power and simply adhere to it. Holding VT1 for a few hours is not as easy as it sounds. Really. Winter before last we did back-to-back group rides at ~VT1 on weekends, so maybe 120 miles between them. We improved our endurance on the tandem quite a bit. We were one of 3 tandems AFAIK to finish RAMROD in '15.

I don't think limiting weekly hours is the way to get faster over the long run. Limiting intensity is the way to go. I try for either zones 1/2 or 4/5 leaving out zone 3 as much as I can. So maybe 1 hour/week of 4/5 and the rest 1/2 in a 10 hour week. Many folks can manage 2 hours of 4/5 but I can't.

The ride with your wife is fine. We used to do that before we bought our tandem.

Not particularly worried about increasing speed or endurance over a single ride-- I knocked out a couple of solo centuries during the past two months, one at 17mph avg. and the other at 19.6mph avg.

My typical rides fall end with an HR avg just over 140bpm, which is the very bottom of my Z2. I can maintain that pace all day, both of my double metrics this year were Z2 efforts, both @ 16.7mph.

This morning was 75 minutes @ 129bpm average, 18.4mph. I feel fine now, some 6 hours off the bike, and I think that's 100% due to setting that time limit and sticking to it. I had tons of energy when I finished the ride, but didn't let myself go after a few more laps, which is what I would have done even just last week.

September averaged almost 18 hours a week on the bike, and at least for me it's not sustainable beyond a couple of weeks. I literally have to force myself to take days off, and cut rides down in terms of time/distance. I'm a few weeks overdue for an FTP test, but know I'm in no state to tackle one right now.

Oh OK, you've already backed way off intensity. I misunderstood. A "hard" 3 hour ride for me will give me an average HR of 90% of LTHR. I thought that's what you were doing every day.

Yeah, due to the overreach/overtrain I can't sustain my HR in high zones for extended periods. I don't have the gas to keep the intensity up, and the HR drops fast. From LTHR to Z1 takes less than a minute. So at least I've got that going for me.

Great points esp limiting intensity not TITS (time in the saddle). I've limited my 1.5/2hr one way commutes to strictly zone 1/2 with 2-3 hr zone 1-5 sat rides this winter. When i start intervals in Dec i limit TITS :)