Covid Catastrophe

Training
1

I’ve done it! Didn’t listen to podcasts, others or self. Since lockdown I’ve had nothing to do but cycle, low maintenance job and all the time in the world to train, so my issue is I have over trained, lock, stock and broken body.

Over the last 22 weeks I’ve pushed hard, had only 1 real “rest week” and had an average TSS of 675 per week which included 32 Zwift races - normally not an issue but for a 54 year old rider it wasn’t big or cleaver and now I’m suffering.

At first I was getting good gains, got my FTP to 308 and weight was steady at 67kg. Then after a while it started to drop off, and slowly, I thought it was just a temporary glitch, I started to lose power and the ability to train. To the point when at the beginning of August I was spent but by the time I realised it was too late.

No power, no steady heart rate, tight chest with absolutely no capacity for Vo2 max, feel drained and tired and do not want to train. I have had 2 full weeks off with no bike and now gone back to commuting only 40km per day at Z2 for 4 days a week- no more, no other rides, no running, no swimming.

So, diet is good - couldn’t really be better, plenty of good quality food and 4 meals a day. Sleep is OK, could be better (2 elderly dogs need to go out in the night) but generally get 9 hours a night.

No real life stresses, job is good, life is good (except for the obvious) and I have as much time to train as I want - normally 9-13 hours a week.

So the question is how to recover from it, do I:
a. Stop all cycling and not start again until I feel better.
b. Carry on with my commute to work each day at no more than Z2 (4 days a week) have weekends off (really off) and use it as active recovery until I get back to normal?

2

I would think that easy commutes are fine, unless you (start to) dislike them. This is probably a better reboot than continuing to do nothing - you did take two weeks off, which is okay, but perhaps could have been extended by a week or so.

I’m not the best person to give you a ‘qualified’ recommendation, as I’ve had a TL of 200+ since the end of June, but that dropped 20 points during a week off the bike b/c of cataract surgery. I’m now back to raising it again.

However, I’ve been there in 2012 and it took me 6 months to recover. And again at the end of 2018, which was my hardest year ever, when I got a hernia - but I guess I really destroyed myself and the hernia just forced me off the bike in the end.

I didn’t ride for three months and it was a difficult comeback afterwards, so I guess that if I would have been able to keep on doing easy rides, it would have been easier.

I like to believe I’ve learned my lesson, but stupid does as stupid is, so don’t take my word for it :joy:

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3

I would check nothing else is wrong too, maybe with blood tests from your doctor. There is a school of thought that overtraining to that extent is not really that possible if all else is good. It could be iron, hormones, liver function, etc.

4

Thank you James, Already got an appointment booked for 10 days time for full bloods with my GP

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5

Thank you, had a hard season last year as well myself and got a little like I am now, but not quite as low, Im going for another week off now completely then try some more steady miles and see if my head comes back in gear and see if my body follows suit, if not “off with his head!”

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6

I’ve read about the overtraining syndrome before, here is an answer for you from an article

Overtraining Syndrome (often abbreviated as OTS), the point at which a body endures more damage during exercise than it can repair, is a real concern for cyclists—especially those with lofty goals.

“It’s very common among endurance athletes,” says Dr. Frank Wyatt, a professor in the department of athletic training and exercise physiology at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas. “In fact, when most athletes are peaking, they’re right on the edge of overtraining.” Being on the edge is one thing; if you slip and fall into the deep crevasse of OTS, though, it can be a long, arduous climb getting yourself back into form again.

If you’ve truly reached the point of OTS, it can take a surprisingly long time to work your way out of it. Traditional wisdom is that you’ll need at least as many weeks of rest as you’ve spent with OTS symptoms, “but that has not been shown in research and because we’re such a diverse species, it’s very difficult to say this will work the same for everyone,” Wyatt says. However, he says two or three weeks of complete rest is generally the minimum amount of time you’ll need to recover. And if you’re seriously over-trained, it’s not unheard of for it to take upwards of a year to truly get your mojo back.

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7

Thank you, its taking some time but the light is at the end of a 3 week tunnel i think

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