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.
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.
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.