Overtraining Advice

Has anyone had any experience with overtraining/overtraining syndrome? Specifically how long did it take to recover?

I’ve not been able to train since late August, I kept getting sick (colds/mild flu), my asthma was playing up and I wasn’t sleeping properly. I have been to the doctors several times and believe that I have just been pushing myself way too hard for a long time. I was trying to prepare for a round of the national cyclocross series in November and was taking part in weekly road races and hard group rides since April (along with TrainerRoad mid volume plans).

I went out for a road ride yesterday and tried a 10 minute hard effort but still don’t feel quite right.

Any recovery advice would be appreciated although I know that I still need to take it easy

Recovering from a serious overtraining state may take several months in some cases, and usually requires training on very low intensities, so that one really gets to recover fully from the state. I know a case among my friends a few years back, that it actually took about nine months of only very light training from him to recover fully, and to be able to up the training intensity again.

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I believe I was in an overtrained state in late 2017. I had been at it for for almost two years straight with no break other than one week off the bike when I broke my collarbone and had it surgically repaired. By late August 2017 I had no energy, every muscle was sore and would not recover, my sleep was off and I was just overall very lethargic but still riding/training 6 days a week. I ended up taking 6 weeks off in total. First two weeks I did nothing except walk my dog 3 miles everyday. Then I started doing some light weight/core training for the final four weeks. I also had several sports massages and saw my PT once a week. After 6 weeks I felt rejuvenated and ready to get back at it. There are tests that can be done to validate it, I think it is to look for elevated cortisol.

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No experience myself but would probably be inclined to refer to it as being ‘under recovered’, pedantic I know.

Anyway, this was discussed in moderate detail on one of the past podcasts. I think Chad was reasonably well versed.

Recovery time is subjective but can be substantial.

It could also be some underlying illness, if you keep getting sick I’d go and see your GP and get some bloods run.

Check out Marianne Vos on procyclingstats. In 2015 she had 2 race days both in NL. You could argue she only got back to full fitness this past road season.