Justen

Hi there,

I have been going to the gym 2-3 times a week for the past two months now and also cycle at least 25 kilometers a day but twice a week will cycle 60 km in one day.

Over the past week, I have found myself not as interested in cycling and am quite fatigued. It is also taking me longer to recover from longer rides. I now have a slightly scratchy throat and am finding I need more sleep than usual.

I am wondering if these are signs of overtraining ? I tried taking a couple of days off this weekend but feel guilty doing so and went cycling anyway.

Now I just feel blah. I got ready to go for a ride but I all I honestly want to do is just lie down and sleep or read.

I feel like my body is trying to tell me to rest but wonder if it is just me making excuses or something ? It doesn't help that we have had VERY high temps lately and they wipe me out fast.

Any suggestions ? am I being lazy or is it possible to overtrain ?

Justen

DnvrFox

Yes, overtraining is an identifiable syndrome, and can happen to any of us.

https://www.rice.edu/~jenky/sports/overtraining.html

RWTD

Yes it sounds like you are developing overtraining signs and I suggest you back off some.If it gets worse you will start experiencing insomnia, loss of appetite and even cold or flu due to a weakened immune system.Keep in mind rest is you bodys way of recovering and I think your body is telling you yuo need more.I always get 9 hours of sleep /night rest (or make it up at some point)and take it easy during the day as much as possible when not exercising ,attempt to cut as much needless stress out of my life as possible and take a day or two completely off when I develop similar signs to what you describe.And yes it can be difficult to sit around and do nothing but don't feel guilty for resting too many people neglect it and suffer the consequences.

Guest

I'm not sure exactly what your routine is. Can you post your day to day, rather than the generalized schedule?

Justen, I've been out of town, so I haven't been able to PM much, but I'll be back Wed, so let's make a plan to hook up on Wed night on a chat.

Koff

Justen

Sure...how do you chat ? do you use AOL? I am on a Mac so use iChat - maybe we could meet up on chat. Or is there one for these forums ?

As for my routine, I generally wake up at 5-5:30 AM everyday - even weekends. I am generally at the gym or out on my bike by 7 AM for about 2 hours.

I come home, read, work and then have lunch. In the afternoon, I do more work and then go out cycling for 20-25 km's.

And then have a light supper. That's generally it. I do my part-time work on the computer so can work from home.

So, that's basically it. But now suddenly, I am exhausted. I found it difficult to get to sleep the last couple of nights, I feel VERY fatigued now and just getting ready to go out on my bike was exhausting. I have no interest in going to the gym or cycling now and just want to rest and sleep but like I said in my note, I feel guilty doing so.

Justen

Guest

!!!!!!!!!!

Too much! You gotta give yourself a day or two off of doing exercise all the time. You're breaking down muscle, but your body doesn't get a chance to rebuild. So you're slowly feeling like you're breaking down too!

Take 1 to 2 days off, and on those days off, don't get up early either! Sleep until your body tells you it's ready to get up. You'll probably feel full of energy if you start doing this now in a couple of weeks, latest.

And are you biking twice a day? If you are, it's not necessary. If you do 2 hours in the morning, then do an additional 20- 35 km in the afternoon, you are doing more than enough.

You may even have to bump up your nutrition substantially to make up for all the energy you are burning.

Dang, I'm just getting tired reading your schedule. You sound like me in the old days, but I was a lot worse than you. One day, I just got tired and slept in, and after that, I just crashed and burned big time. Don't be me!

I'll send you a PM later on about when we can chat.

Koffee

Justen

Hi Koffee,

First, I should say that getting up early is nothing new for me. I have been an early riser all my life. I have never had to use an alarm clock ! :-)

However, the exercise thing early in the morning is not old. For the past two months, I have been trying to get out and exercise early and particularly the last couple of weeks as it is simply too hot to cycle any other time of the day.

But...maybe my body is rebelling now and I am not resting enough. I was just trying so hard to lose weight and I am scared that I do not have much time left to live and enjoy things. Like I said, my doctors have told me I am going to die before I am 30 and quite possibly in the next two years. I know doctors have been known to be wrong on that type of thing but I almost died from an asthma attack earlier this year and ended up on a breathing machine. That is the 8th time that has happened so there is some validity to their comments I guess.

Anyway, you're right, I do need to rest more. I am going to move my bike into the back room so that I don't feel so guilty about not going out on it.

Let me know about the chat time. I am on PST time....

Justen

~LongRider~

Try to take a couple days off, split up in the week. Like Wed. and Sun.. You need to increase your intake too. Eat more lean protiens. Eat small amounts 4 or 5 times a day. Take multi vitamins too.

RWTD

Justen Like LongRider said nutrition factors into this as well and he gave you some good advice.I don't recall your exact diet but I do remember you were doing your early morning exercise on an empty stomach to enhance fatburning.You may want to try a bowl of oatmeal or similar complex carb first thing in morning several hours before the exercise to insure you don't run out of energy from nutrition.This still gives you time to digest and store the food and burn off the readily available blood sugar so you will still be going into the fatburning early in the workout but will be able to extend the duration without becoming fatigued as soon.

fietser_ivana

I'm a member of several bodybuilding fora now and all of them stress to NOT exercise with weights for more than 1 hour as it raises cortisol levels too much!

Actually this also holds true for cycling. So, if you're really into losing weight, you'd be better of with a very intensive workout of 45 mins rather than a long ride... never mind how much fun cycling is of course!

So, if I were you I'd train with weights 3 times/week and do intensive cardio another 2-3 times week and just throw in ONE long ride for the fun of it.

BTW, my distance to the gym is 13 km, so I get to a little bit over 1 hr of cycling each time I go to the gym.

Ivana

~LongRider~

Good info there. Ive read that the highest impact that cardio gives is in the first 30 to 45 minutes.

Justen

Hi Ivana,

Thank you for all your suggestions and the info.

I have heard mixed views on distance and weight loss. Some have said that the fat burning doesn't happen unless you cycle for long distances at the same speed with a few intervals of high intensity cycling. Other's have said what you said.

As I recall actually, my last ride was just over an hour and I was cycling full out for much of that. I did about 20 kilometers in 55 minutes. I guess that might still be a bit slow. My second ride of each day is much more leisurely and I don't care how much I burn off. I just love cycling and want to take in the sights, stop and take photos (to play with in Photoshop), etc etc.

So I guess if any fat burning happens, it will happen in that first workout but maybe that is too much.

Justen

RWTD

Justen As I recall you previously said you were having problems with the athsma if you went too long (and I think too hard as well if I remember correctly)so some people suggested you ride twice a day with a rest interval in between.Lower intensity generally works best if you can extend the time/distance enough or otherwise start with blood sugar depleted to quickly begin fatburning.High intensity works well if you want to limit cycling to an hour or less /day .But extending time/distance and increasing intensity are fairly advanced techniques that you have to work up too so I suggest you get out as often as possible and work at both techniques but listen to your body and back off if you seem to be pushing it too hard/too far.I also recall like myself you tend to push things a little too far at times and end up with the potential to overtrain at times as a result.So once you have recovered and start back up again one or two seperated rest days within the week is probably a good idea.