Keep getting burnt out!
 

Hi guys, my problem is that I keep getting burnt out and don't seem to be making any progress. I cycle 9 miles a day to and from work, it's not particularly strenuous. Then twice a week I cycle 11 miles after work, its a reasonably tough route with plenty of hills , takes me about 45 minutes on my racing bike. On top of that I go to the gym twice a week (do push ups and weights as a circuit but not low reps of heavy weights) then I go rock climbing once a week. I usually do no cycling on the weekend.

My diet is as follows

2 eggs on 1 piece of wholemeal toast for breakfast
200g of light cottage cheese at 11
lunch - chicken breast, roast veg. some sweet potato and some chick peas
3 oclock 200g of light cottage cheese
If I go for a ride/rock climbing/gym then I'll have a large banana before sometimes some nuts as well
then for dinner I'll have something along the lines of gammon steak with egg, salad and a small amount of rice.

I can sustain doing this for a few weeks then it seems to creep up on me and hit me in the face and I'll start feeling very tired,confused, grumpy, need to eat some more, I have to rest then for a week (aside from cycling to work) before I feel normal again. So it seems like I am over trained, thing is I feel like I have an active week but I don't feel I am doing that much exercise to be feeling this bad. Also I weight 13 stone and am 5' 10 so I feel I could lose some weight, I am carrying some fat on my stomach so I don't really want to start eating too much more.

Anyone else had similar experiences or got any advice?

Definitely sounds like you are over training, for a primer I'd look at Joe Friel's post on the subject: http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2012/06...rtraining.html.

When training I try to do 3 or 4 weeks of training followed by a rest week (I cut the number of hours by about half or so). Sometimes as I finish the last week of training I start to feel most of what you describe (very tired, grumpy, and usually hungry). You might also make sure that you are getting enough sleep.

The other response is spot on. Also, your diet doesn't seem to be including many vegetables. You may be lacking in essential vitamins or minerals. I'd either step up the veggie intake or take a multivitamin. Don't forget to relax, too. Stressing your body and mind out all day everyday regardless of what you eat or how much you sleep is going to make you crash. It seems to me like you are an "all or nothing" type of person, me too. It's important to maintain some sense of balance and calm in your life, and not go balls to the wall on each endevaour.

You're not riding enough to be overtraining so I would look at diet. Are you losing weight. It doesn't appear that you're eating enough during the day. I would suggest closely monitoring your caloric intake and expenditure for a while and make sure you're not trying to sustain too large a deficit. You shouldn't be having more than 500 Cal/day of deficit.

Another suggestion would be to go the doctor and have some basic blood work done to rule out any potential issues.

I think I definitely have overdone it. The thing is apart from cycling to work I haven't done any exercise for about 3 weeks. I have taken time off work recently due to coming down with a nasty cold, but I still feel hungry all the time and my resting heart rate is elevated. If I have overtrained how long will it take to recover?

Like Greg, I don't think you're overtrained, not on that mileage. I think you're underfed. And if your HR is elevated you might have a virus or something.

I agree with the others, you are not over training. I dont think its your diet either unless you are dropping weight. The one factor that you didnt mention is your sleep schedule. If you dont get enough sleep your body will not recover. When i train hard i sleep 9-10 hrs almost every night.

I apologize, when I said overtraining I really think that its possible that the OP may be over doing it given a couple of scenarios. 1) This level of activity may be new to them and they have done to much to fast or 2) they may not be getting enough calories or sleep (or combination of both).

It's very difficult to give any opinions about the OP's problem without any information about age, weight, physical conditioning, etc. A 10 mile a day ride may be very strenuous for one person (e.g. 55 yrs. old, 300 lbs., etc.) and no big deal for another person.

I am 25 and 13 stone. I have been feeling rotten for about 6 weeks or so now. I am still really hungry all the time. Is it possible that this has built up over the course of the last 6 months? and if so how long could it last before I feel normal again. I think I was training in the wrong way as I am still a novice cyclist really and I did used to train by really trying to push myself and power up hills etc, I never built up an endurance base first. I have been to the doctor and apparently my liver is slightly inflamed so I suppose it could be linked to another health issue, virus etc. Has anybody else experienced long term fatigue like this? Cheers

In my opinion its not the miles that count, but the effort you make. On the week you aren´t doing many miles, an then you do that steep hill ride. To do anaerobic wor you first got to build muscle with more fibers, and more coronary arteries in aerobic work. I thing yore not riding enough on the flat as to gain more air, and the hill ride is just burning your legs but not improving your endurance. You should check the training sessions has some cool advice on resistance and power. id improve resistance at first and then power.
I might seem like I have bought stock on Garmin or Polar, as lately i always recommend this, but you should get a heart rate monitor and check on what zone you´re pedaling. Miles dont count, speed doesnt count. What counts is your heartbeat and what heart zone you are working on. The heart rate monitor is the RPM of your engine. If you ask me if 70mph is forcing the engine, then id ask you what are the RPM. If youre drving a Gordini at 7000rmp id say its too much. If youre on a Lambo at 2000 id say its ok.
The more resistance and power you gain, the lower your bpm will be, so blood flows correctly to muscles and you dont get burnt

Looking at what you eat I'm going with a vote for underfed. I am 26, 10 lbs lighter than you (meaning I have a lower daily base caloric requirement), and have a very similar schedule workout schedule/active lifestyle - granted I'm a powerlifter, so I lift very heavy for low reps. I also run regularly and play any sport that happens to come along. All while cycling 150-200 miles a week between commuting and road work. I took the liberty of calculating your sample diet total kCals - it's about 1500/day. I would guesstimate I eat 2-4 times as much as you on any given day (3000-4500 calories/day). And my guesstimate is pretty close, I used to obsessively measure my food/calorie intake for lifting. For a 5'10" 25-year-old weighing 13 stone, your base calorie requirement is going to be about 2000/day IF you did virtually no physical activity. If you are trying to lose weight you're hurting yourself twice - slowing your metabolism by underfeeding and robbing yourself of the fuel you need to put in good hard workouts. Eat more, see how you feel. Drink plenty of water, get your sleep, and avoid the booze.

Go on livestrong.com, get a MyPlate account, and record everything you eat and all of your activities. As someone else already mentioned, a 500 calorie deficit, or less (from your total calories consumed, NOT your basal metabolic rate) is a good goal to shoot for. A 500 calorie net deficit everyday will add up to about 1 lb of body fat lost / week, as a general rule of thumb. The lower your bf% the more you need to monkey with calorie cycling, carb cycling, etc to keep losing. But for starters, all you need to know is that slow and steady is better than fast and burnt out when it comes to weight loss.