H2Row

How can you tell if you are training too much? What happens to your body if you do train too much?

Dalai

Lots of info online eg. https://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/o.../aa062499a.htm

Usual to test resting heart rate and look for the symptoms such as serious fatigue, irritability etc.

Injury and illness can be the result...

slim_77

are you really f***ing tired? How is your motivation to workout? diminished? How is your achievement per workout (are you hitting the same goals)? diminished?

If your HR is not as responsive as it was or if you can not hit the same power goals as you were, you are most likely tired and need a rest. Don't forget your rest days...if you have overdone it maybe take a few days off and start up next week.

H2Row

No everything is fine - that is whi I was asking. I read somewhere (basically just glanced at it) that not being able to sleep could be a symptom and I haven't been getting to sleep easily and my training has shot up from what it was before. Maybe it is just the heat in summer here. I haven't been tired before bed much which is making me struggle to get sleeping.

slim_77

that is one symptom, but not sleeping can be caused by many other factors: stress, caffeine, lack of magnesium, overtired, eating to close to bedtime, heat, etc...

Though I have not experienced it in any severity, my understanding is that it is more chronic than what one week of tough training can produce. Try some conscious relaxation before bed...I try to read...that helps me.

good luck.

mtcycle09

"If you overtrained, it means that you didn't train hard enough to handle that level of training. So you weren't overtrained; you were actually undertrained to begin with. So there's the rule again: The guy who trains the hardest, the most, wins."
—Floyd Landis
thats my rule on it... but if your really not motivated to train and feel slugish but arn't being lazy thats a good sign to lay back on the training for a few days

H2Row

Yeah - well it has been about a months training at this intensity and I was wondering if it was somehow catching up to me.

Thanks for all the replies :-)

slim_77

yeah, a month could ware you out pretty good. Take a few days off and see how you feel. can't hurt.

Flak

The biggest sign for me last season was my immune system. After my peak and A race i got sick 4 times in the space of 2 months. I never usually get sick more than once a year.

cyclehen

Your usual resting heartrate may go up or down. But I think the more reliable symptoms may be how you feel. If you experience irritability, soreness, insomnia, change in appetite, or decreased performance, overtraining may be your problem. Rest is definitely important. I'd recommend one of Joe Friel's books w/ info on the subject-- "Total Heart Rate Training" or "Triathlete's Training Bible". If you are asking if you are overtrained, something's not right, and you may well be.

WxGuesser

hey peeps... i was just going to make a post about overtraining.... since apparently i've been doing that lately.... as much as i'd like to be a bad ass.... i suppose 2 hard workouts a day 6 days a week is not a good idea for me... starting last week i upped my workouts... and right now i feel like ****! my plan was to do 2 workouts a day and take sunday off... then repeat... this week i alternated swim and run days and bike and run... today because of my poor time management.. i ended up doing a run/bike.. yeah i know i should have done a traditional brick... but it didn't happen.... anyway i did a 7 mile run then a 50+ mile ride... on the way home from my ride.. i was hurting... cramping alot... that sucked... my nutrition was normal.. but the body wasn't liking it... i also started to notice some pain in my left knee... about a mile from home... wow i'm killing my body... looks like monday will be a light workout.. i'm gonna fuel up good starting now... and rest as much as possible til monday.. then go back to 1 workout a day...

NzAndy

This ends up being a real judgment call depending on what your base fitness was before starting and how hard you are training, in my experience. I know I'm not alone in the problem that the mindset is to work hard each weekend and let the easier days during the week count as your recovery. I last about 8 to 10 weeks before I typically end up overtraining on that schedule and end up with some lung problem like bronchitis around race time. As for irritability, I've been told that if you meet more than 3 *******s in a day you're probably overtraining.

My big effort this year is to follow a different program where every 3rd or 4th week is a much lower intensity. Measuring intensity as time x effort and mapping out 3 steps up with the 4th being equal to the first allows for more recovery which is just as important as the training. The performance increase comes from the increase in intensity but you also need to give time to let that take effect. Some people use every 3rd weekend as the resting one but its your call. After all, you're unique, just like everybody else.

Best of luck,
Andy

K1W1

[QUOTE=Dalai;5907727]Lots of info online eg. https://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/o.../aa062499a.htm


This is a great resource, thanks, Dalai. Overtraining can creep up on you - it all depends on what is happening in the rest of your life too, not just the training. Also, you need to seriously review your log every month (or less) - take note of motivation, energy levels, perceived efforts for workouts, sleep quality and quantity; travel; work or family stress, ....LISTEN to YOUR body, before it silently takes you out of the game altogether! You also need time-out from a sport from time to time, do some cross-training or something completely different to keep life interesting.