When is it a good idea for me to take a break?

InconveniencedBadger

Hi everyone,

So I've been training fairly hard since about July, riding at least 3 times a week but often more, doing about 150 miles per week. I've done many centuries during this period, as well as fast group rides, interval training, 1 crit race and 1 hill climb time trial.
Although I'm now faster than I've ever been and keeping up with much faster riders than I'd have thought I would be, I'm slightly concerned that I might be overtraining a bit, or at least in danger of overtraining. I've noticed and heard that other riders tend to take a break around this time of year to avoid overtraining - I don't want to do that just yet as I've got another race in December. As I'm a bit unsure of when (or if) I should take a break, I was wondering if anyone on here had an idea on when would be a good time to take a week or so off the bike before working towards next season.

This has been the first year where I've really worried about performance when riding.

Thanks

cougie

Just have an easier week then once a month or so.

It all depends how you're training really. If you're battering yourself every ride then you'll need more rest than someone who is mixing things up.

Only you can judge this.

OnTheRopes

Depending on where in the world you live of course but in the northern hemisphere now is the traditional time to take a break. it doesn't mean you have to stop though just drop the intensity and mileage and do steady rides, or change to riding MTB or do another sport perhaps, do some running or Gym work and drop the mileage so you don't burn out.
Perhaps you need a proper training schedule so that you can see the point and benefit of a transition period.

If you have a race, if it's not an important target race then you can still ease up and just maintain a bit of speed and taper for the event?

MishMash95

I'm always guilty of pushing it a little too hard, but as it stands right now, i'm the fittest i've ever been and that has mostly been the result of knocking back the intensity a bit. I found that doing too many brutal sessions a week (Threshold/VO2max/anaerobic hill repeats) was just nuking me. So now, I've actually been riding more, but really focusing on spending a lot more time below threshold, with a mix of endurance pace and quite a bit of sweetspot, saving the intense stuff for the weekend group rides

Every time I start to feel a bit bogged down, rather than stopping cold turkey, I just remember to dial it back a bit and know that i'll still maintain what i've built while being able to recover. One thing that really frustrated me is that having even just a few full days off the bike left me feeling a bit dodgy. 5 days+ off and I felt more like I had lost a bit of fitness rather than recovered and ended up still not feeling super fresh.

Consistency has definitely been key for me lately, and i've focused on training myself to get used to a higher volume of riding so that I can be as consistent as possible and still recover well. But a very important part of consistency is keeping it manageable, both physically and mentally. It's fun just to have an easier week where you chill out, whack in plenty of cafe stops and ride as you feel, go hard if you want to, go easy if you want to.

The one caveat to this is that if you are feeling pain or discomfort beyond fatigue (super tight muscles, sore knee, aches/pains etc) at that point its worth taking 2-3 days off completely, just to avoid damaging muscles. I find that happens when I do a few back to back longer rides, as my main muscles get tired and the less-used muscles get over-worked.

Another thing is if you are becomming unproductive or lethargic in your day to day life, that's probably the most clear-cut sign of overtraining, and at which point, you wont be able to put out good efforts on the bike anyway.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

If using a hrm and/or power meter, https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... pckn?hl=en (formerly Stravistix) plugin for Strava will give you an idea of your fitness/fatigue/form.

As does https://cricklesorg.wordpress.com/ (even estimates efforts without hrm or power, plus does other useful stuff like LTHR and FTP if you have hr/pm respectively)

As does https://power-meter.cc/home if using a power meter.

Typical Analytical

There's no magic time. Check RHR, OHR, RPE + cardiac drift vs AWIHR, and subjective indicators such as sleep quality, stress, energy, appetite, mood and motivation.

InconveniencedBadger

Lots to think about here - thanks for the replies. I think I probably do need a more structured training programme to avoid confusion and it will be fun to take myself far more seriously than I really should! I'll hopefully also invest in a powermeter soon.
As for now, I've decided to take today and tomorrow off at least as I've been feeling quite lethargic and after that I'll focus more on sweetspot and base rides for a bit rather than intensity, but I'll probably go back to sprinting and intervals at some point before racing. Thanks again all.

ric/rstsport

InconveniencedBadger wrote:

Hi everyone,

So I've been training fairly hard since about July, riding at least 3 times a week but often more, doing about 150 miles per week. I've done many centuries during this period, as well as fast group rides, interval training, 1 crit race and 1 hill climb time trial.
Although I'm now faster than I've ever been and keeping up with much faster riders than I'd have thought I would be, I'm slightly concerned that I might be overtraining a bit, or at least in danger of overtraining. I've noticed and heard that other riders tend to take a break around this time of year to avoid overtraining - I don't want to do that just yet as I've got another race in December. As I'm a bit unsure of when (or if) I should take a break, I was wondering if anyone on here had an idea on when would be a good time to take a week or so off the bike before working towards next season.

This has been the first year where I've really worried about performance when riding.

Thanks

Specifically, it'd be impossible to say without knowing a whole lot more about you - for when (or if) you should take a break. On the other hand, riding 3 times a week, completing about 150 miles per week (given that you're of race fitness) is massively far away from the likelihood of you becoming overtrained, even if you rode those 150 miles absolutely flat out (week in, week out, at your absolute limit). if perhaps you were very old it may be a vague issue.

Overtraining is characterised, not only by fatigue, but must be accompanied by an unexplained decrease in performance that is not resolved with obvious changes. given that you're faster now, it seems plausible that your performance has increased rather than decreased (although speed is also associated with changes in environmental and topographical conditions). Overtraining is often referred to as unexplained underperformance syndrome.

Several researchers have attempted to model overtraining to see how it affected athletes. one such attempt involved doubling training loads for 3 to 4 weeks in very well trained athletes who were already training 5 to 7 days per week. all that happened was that the athletes got faster after a suitable bit of easing up. Other attempts at overtraining have been ameliorated by increasing carbohydrate intake.

On the other hand, as a piece of anecdote, i'm attempting to ride every day for 13 months. i had two easy weeks of unstructured training post my biggest race of the year, and since then have been back at structured training. I'm averaging about 12 hours a week

Ric

InconveniencedBadger

Ric/RSTSport wrote:

InconveniencedBadger wrote:

Hi everyone,

So I've been training fairly hard since about July, riding at least 3 times a week but often more, doing about 150 miles per week. I've done many centuries during this period, as well as fast group rides, interval training, 1 crit race and 1 hill climb time trial.
Although I'm now faster than I've ever been and keeping up with much faster riders than I'd have thought I would be, I'm slightly concerned that I might be overtraining a bit, or at least in danger of overtraining. I've noticed and heard that other riders tend to take a break around this time of year to avoid overtraining - I don't want to do that just yet as I've got another race in December. As I'm a bit unsure of when (or if) I should take a break, I was wondering if anyone on here had an idea on when would be a good time to take a week or so off the bike before working towards next season.

This has been the first year where I've really worried about performance when riding.

Thanks

Specifically, it'd be impossible to say without knowing a whole lot more about you - for when (or if) you should take a break. On the other hand, riding 3 times a week, completing about 150 miles per week (given that you're of race fitness) is massively far away from the likelihood of you becoming overtrained, even if you rode those 150 miles absolutely flat out (week in, week out, at your absolute limit). if perhaps you were very old it may be a vague issue.

Overtraining is characterised, not only by fatigue, but must be accompanied by an unexplained decrease in performance that is not resolved with obvious changes. given that you're faster now, it seems plausible that your performance has increased rather than decreased (although speed is also associated with changes in environmental and topographical conditions). Overtraining is often referred to as unexplained underperformance syndrome.

Several researchers have attempted to model overtraining to see how it affected athletes. one such attempt involved doubling training loads for 3 to 4 weeks in very well trained athletes who were already training 5 to 7 days per week. all that happened was that the athletes got faster after a suitable bit of easing up. Other attempts at overtraining have been ameliorated by increasing carbohydrate intake.

On the other hand, as a piece of anecdote, i'm attempting to ride every day for 13 months. i had two easy weeks of unstructured training post my biggest race of the year, and since then have been back at structured training. I'm averaging about 12 hours a week

Ric

It may have been an unnecassary concern but I've only really been this fit since August and as I've been training fairly hard most weeks since then (wrong time of year for it I know!) I just thought that it may be becoming unsustainable; I want to be at my best next summer. My age is 17 - hardly very old so I doubt that that would be a detriment to training. By the way, good luck with riding every day for 13 months!