Overtraining or undertraining?

Ands

I feel like I'm losing power . I've done a ride today and struggled up some climbs that I normally feel comfortable on. I've been feeling a bit jaded the last 10 days in that things seem harder than they used to.

I came out of winter having done a lot of turbo work but once the warmer weather came, I stopped using it as much and was doing less interval work. I've found that in the last couple of weeks that hills feel harder than they did in April/May. I'm doing a lot more miles but perhaps less focused intensity.

My take on this is to train harder. My other half has the opposite opinion - that I've overtrained and I need to take it easy.

I go on holiday in 2.5 weeks - my plan was to ramp up until then, and then have a really easy week at the beach before getting to the Alps.

Is there a way I can tell if I'm overtrained or not as at the moment I don't know whether to go harder or back off?

LJAR

There are others more qualified to comment but, if you are having trouble up climbs that used to be no problem then it suggests overtraining to me.

Do you have regular recovery and adaption weeks, or do you just train solidly through?

Have a bit of a rest and see if it gets better - more rest is seldom a bad thing.

hopper1

Are you actually taking the time to recover, Ands?...
During training keep an eye on your pulse, this should give indications to help you diagnose such things...
Take a day or two off... See how you feel.

softlad

Ands wrote:

Is there a way I can tell if I'm overtrained or not as at the moment I don't know whether to go harder or back off?

you could check over your training diary - which should tell you in an instant whether you have been over-training, or under-training.

Ands

softlad wrote:

Ands wrote:

Is there a way I can tell if I'm overtrained or not as at the moment I don't know whether to go harder or back off?

you could check over your training diary - which should tell you in an instant whether you have been over-training, or under-training.

This is the problem - I can't differentiate between over and under. I see that I stopped doing intervals as much, but introduced longer rides, hillier rides, rode harder at the hills. But, I'm crap at doing sustained efforts on the road. I could do 2 x 20s for example on the turbo, but not on the road as I find it mentally tougher (and I can't measure power on the road).

As regards recovery, have to admit, I find it difficult to take it easy on a ride. But then again, I generally ride every other day, or not more than 2 days consecutively, so can't I count my days off as recovery, rather than having active recovery on the bike? I don't know the right answer to that one.

My HR averages seem to be consistent.
I wanted to go to the Alps with as much strenght in my legs as possible so can you see my dilemma about whether I need to back off or work harder?

I recently had a complete week off the bik (5-11 JUne) so I was surprised that I feel jaded so soon after a week off. Prior to that, I didn't really have any kind of recovery week unless I go back as far as first week of April. I didn't ride Mon/Tue this week either and I can't say I felt fresh when I went out on Wed .

Anonymous

Try doing a 4 day block - 2 harder days then a recovery ride then a day off, repeat.