Not Sleeping...... Heeeeeelp
 

I have recently lost 30lbs and was training regularly... about 80-100 miles a week. Well I have since hit plateau for two months. My diet was basic, calories in and calories out. I've noticed when I increased my miles (120-150) and intensity I was having trouble sleeping. I would increase my calories to match my work load as well and still having troube sleepling. I have also backed off some of my training and I was able to sleep better. Three days the most. And sometimes cross train. Of course this is effecting my training and I don't want to loos to much fitness come spring.

My question is, could I be overtrained? How long could one be overtrained? How long do I need to back off to go back out and be able to train as hard as I like. This has been going on for about two months off and on? I've been tracking my sleep patterns and I've noticed on high intensity day and long days (4 hours) are the nights that I have trouble sleeping.

Any advice.......

Yup, that's probably overtraining. Very typical. It's the intensity, mostly. Back that off. You'll lose a lot more fitness to overtraining than to backing it off. When I get like that, I'll also usually notice that I'm using smaller gears climbing, my heart rate doesn't come up as much when I climb, and that my morning resting heart rate is up about 6 beats.

I was once overtrained a whole summer. Did a lot of rides, too, but was slow.

You don't mention using a heart rate monitor. I find that a HRM is the best tool you've got for preventing this. I finally went to a recording HRM that I can download into my computer, so that I can keep track of and therefore limit my intensity for each week. It tracks my time-in-zone. I also take my morning resting heart rate every morning, and put that into my training software, so I track that, too. That's a big help.

If you're using a HRM, you can back it off until your HR once again pops right up to over lactate threshold on a steep hill. Then you're good to go again.

But good for you for wanting. That's a good thing. When you lose the wanting, too, that's bad.

I'm not even breathing hard.

You have run out of Magnesium. Magnesium is a muscle relaxer, it relaxes you enough to sleep and its required to burn fat. All your training and fat burning has used up your bodies stores of magnesium and you won't move on from here until you get your magnesium levels back up. Taking magnesium can be sometimes problematic because it leads to loose bowel movements which sometimes is desirable but not often. Take some magnesium up to bowel tolerance and back off a little.

Regards, Anthony

Nyquil. Works every time.

On the serious tip, make sure your nutritional needs are being met, like theother guys said.

and maintain your diet. linky

Thanks for all info. It was very helpful.

if you exercise too late in the day it can cause you to have a bad sleep...the best time is morning or late afternoon if possible. I don't usually like to exercise strenuously after about 8 pm...yoga is okay but nothing else, like working out.

The best thing that has happened to me in a while is Melatonin. Its awsome and all natural. I took the sleep drugs but in the morn, I felt like I had been hit by a truck! Not with Melatonin. You can get them anywhere.

It sounds to me like you are poorly recovered. You may also be overtrained, but been poorly recovered is more common.

It sounds like you go out and ride "pretty hard" for most of your riding. To get better, you need focused training - intervals, tempo rides, etc. - rather than just adding miles and intensity.

I also think you should look at your on-ride and recovery nutrition. That can make a huge difference in how well you do with increased load.

Thanks. After some more research I have come to that conclusion as well. Looking back it looks like my on-ride recovery is poor and then refueling consistantly was poor as well. I will watch it more closely from now on.

Wait. You are training for ~10 hours per week, correct? I would pay closer attention to what you are doing with the other 158 hours of the week. You are likely NOT overtrained, but not fully recovered.
You mention no age, nor fitness, nor time of day you are training. Any caffeine consumption?

I would first make sure you are adequately hydrated. Dehydration robs you of efficiency, throws off your electrolytes and makes your heart work harder.

First take a baseline HR. As you wake up in the morning for several mornings in a row, before your head is off the pillow take your resting heart rate using your clock radio. After several mornings you will get a feel for your true resting HR. Any deviation from this can tell you if you are overtrained.

I can't imagine a scenerio where someone can overtrain only exercising 10 hrs per week.
Drink till you urinate every 3 hours. You also don't mention where you live. If it is winter there, a humidifier will help you hydrate as well. You can lose up to 10% of your water through your respiration.

Your focus now should be steady base miles where you are not taking your HR up too high anyway. You don't need to be a January champion, but build so in late summer you've got something left (mentally and physically) in the tank.

Did you try to stretch to pre-fatigue your body before bed? No caffeine too late? Train earlier?

Thanks for the advice....Yes, I agree that it that I'm not fully recovered. I do most everything right except not taking easy days when I'm suppose to and always riding with a group. Oh...... and eating enough carb for recovery after long or intense rides. I have a HR monitor but I've been able to "get away with " this way of riding until recently. It caught up to me like every one said it would. So I am back to working on my base and getting my nutrion in order.

I live in Las Vegas!!!!!!!!!!

+1

Melatonin is not only a vital hormone for sleep, but also a very powerful antioxidant, so supplementing with it before bedtime to help your lack of sleep could help you in other ways as well.

Interesting stuff. I'm finding the same, but I excersise for 35 minutes at night, an hour before bed--and I'm not finding sleep to be a problem *until* I start cutting back on calories. Then I don't seem to unwind right so I can fall asleep properly. Maybe it's because I tend to have a high-calorie snack before bed, and once I settle into an exersise routine (as opposed to my normal sedentary routine), I find my appetite to be diminished for some odd reason.

Nice info on Mg

thanks

I use Melatonin also, prefer the drops under my tongue for best absorption

I likey me some melotonin! I usually can't take it consistantly... it seems to lose it's effect unless I take more and more. I just take it in cycles and it works great...