Okay, I’m 99% certain my last coach (and myself because I am to blame here for sure) pushed me deep into an overtraining hole, of which I’m only now just realizing a couple weeks after we parted ways. I can’t put power down above tempo for even a few minutes without suffering massively, I’m unmotivated, HRV tanked since January and RHR up in that same time frame.
I took three days completely off last week, prior to that I’d have one day off every few weeks, so I figured it would be enough. Silly me!
I rode this morning and sweet spot for two minutes just felt like death. So I’m thinking I need more like a full week to two weeks off the bike. Do I wait until my HRV and RHR start trending in the right direction or just hop on the bike and see how I feel? I would imagine I won’t feel great those first few days back because I’ll have been off for a while, so I’m not really sure how to return or know when I’m ready.
Also, am I an idiot if I keep my two weightlifting days but dial the load down a bit? It’s the only thing exercise-wise bringing me joy at the moment.
Lastly, tell me your stories! How dead were you? How long did it take?
Not real overtraining, but recovering from injury was likely similar, with “awful” power numbers, increased RHR and so on.
I just turned all these metrics off for two weeks (or even longer). I would say try this yourself! If you ride your bike, don’t look at power and heartrate (and maybe even speed). remove it from your screen.
Plan routes to places you didn’t visit yet. And just enjoy riding in new scenery. And keeping it really easy.
Worth a medical check up too? A few tests on key blood levels and similar, just in case there is something out of kilter there (either cause of, or effect of), or a virus?
I got a full panel done 22 March and everything was within normal range. I wouldn’t say optimal, but at least normal. My doctor got me on a prescription level iron supplement last August and we have played with the dosage since getting my ferritin from 23 to 97, with several blood tests along the way. I don’t think I’m due another one for quite some time now.
