Overtrained or just overreached and recovery.

Drifterjoe5

Hi Guys,

So I've overdone it recently and I'm fully aware of how and why and will address this in future:

Busy/stressful month at work,
Lack of quality sleep,
Under eating,
Hard strength training in the gym then riding on sore legs,
Having a rest day and instead of resting I'm rushing around because I've loads I need to do.


So the damage is done but how much?

Two weeks ago I was going well and my resting heart rate was normal. I hit the gym quite hard after 4 consecutive bike days. I took a rest day but like I say I doubt it was very restful. Next day I did some interval training which didn't feel great as I think I was still a bit sore from the gym work. Next day I did a steady 18mph 60 miles didn't feel good but put it down to the cold weather and that everyone has a bad day. Next day went for a short spin and felt really rubbish.

At this point I realised that I was showing the signs of overtraining, my legs felt weird, I was grumpy, had not been sleeping well for about a week and my resting heart rate was up from about 42 to 58-62 first thing in the morning. Then I picked up a cold and I'm very rarely ill.

So I took 5 days completely off exercise and upped my calorie intake. This week I felt better I've done some shorter rides with rest days between and had a sports massage. It's been 11 days since I started the recovery.

I feel good now, my cold went after two days and I feel very motivated to ride. I have no probs getting my heartrate up to normal threshold numbers. But My resting heart rate is still elevated in the morning 50-52 bpm. (could be partly because I am stressing about it being elevated?)

Obviously I would like to limit the damage as much as possible and maintain fitness but should I be completely resting until my RHR is back to normal. Definitely not doing any gym strength work though. (Was about to stop anyway)

If I'm not showing any other simptoms other that my resting heart rate being up about 10 beats would you say this is more to do with the anxiety of the situation or am I still needing rest.

Any advise from anyone else who has had similar expieriences would be fantastic.

Cheers Joe.

harkmeadow

1) turn off your heart rate monitor first thing in morning
2) stop stressing. You are not a pro
3) Go ride your bike. You'll feel better

Drifterjoe5

Thanks and I do agree with you if you feel good ride and don't worry so much. But equally I want to be as strong as possible for my most definitely non pro races that do this year. So I don't want to mess myself up by going back too soon too hard and having to take an even longer break.

MattyDeez

Your overthinking everything. Your probably stressing yourself out because your stressing.

SBezza

Probably not overtraining, as you would expect a longer recovery period, probably just over reaching and with the adequate recovery you will have recovered sufficiently.

As above don't worry too much about resting HR, it can be high for numerous reasons and it may not even be linked to training, everyday life stresses cause abnormal readings, as does lack of sleep, poor hydration.

Overtraining tends to creep up on you very slowly and over a periods of weeks and months rather than just after 1 or 2 hard weeks. If you do hard weeks and you are not used to them, they will wipe you out, and it could be for quite a few days, the fitter you get the easier recovery from hard sessions become. I would just ease back into training sensibly and keep an eye on other symptoms of overtraining, HR alone is not a real indicator. Don't do every session at a threshold level as well, that is a surefire way to be more prone to overtraining.

Davey C

Unlikley to be overtraining, at 'our' level it's almost impossible to overtrain but certainly very possible to overreach.

danlikesbikes

I'm going to chuck my hat into the ring & agree with you that it is overtraining & yes you are worrying about it which makes things worse.

TBH with you I did the same thing 2 years ago after putting in 6 solid months of winter/spring training out to the gym for a double session then on the bike/rollers/turbo in the evening & possibly doing a brick session twice a week in the evening.

I was and am not a pro by any means and was training for several road & tri races but the work rate was manageable & prescribed in part by our club coach.

As for recovery is hard to say as you don't mention where you are in the training cycle e.g. base, build, specific work. However for recovery you probably would feel good after a 5 day break but would do better with a 4 week cycle of harder and harder work loads until the 4th week where you rain it back by 60-70% giving yourself an active recovery week where you are still working your body and not going to loose fitness but not stressing your body/mind for a 12 week block straight.

I know others might & probably will disagree with me as I am a multisport junkie but I do my fair share of road riding and racing. I'm not a qualified trainer/coach either but have used the services of one & your symptoms are bang on for overtraining & a little bit of stress/worry too.

Personally I ditched the resting HRM as a sign of illness as often recommended as if your doing 2 sessions a day & a little stressed they will be out of the window as a form of diagnosis. Plus I ditched the massage option as was getting expensive and invested in a quality foam roller and sorted myself out.

You'll be fine once you stop worrying about it & sounds like all things are going well e.g. your threshold numbers etc.