I recognise that I’ve dug myself into an overtrained or under-recovered hole (I know there’s a difference but let’s ignore for the purpose of this question) - it’s my usual symptoms of terrible sleep, restlessness, very grumpy, dark thoughts, irritability, etc. This time I’ve also got headaches and bloating but maybe that’s another matter. Festive 500 is the icing on the cake of weeks of riding and lifting and work stress. That said, other than above-threshold stuff I’m still riding well. Above threshold, less so.
So, I’m thinking NYE ride tomorrow will be my last before a rest day. Don’t want to but feel compelled to ride one last time for the holidays and as I won’t have time on NYD and hate the idea of two days off!
So, I’m mentally and physically done in and will take a break. But I want to see some benefit to all this. Is there any? Will I get super-compensation like after a training camp? Is there anything I can do to turn this into a net positive?
There’s sometimes mental benefit in simply knowing you’ve done something. Besides @The_Cog I think was saying on another thread, very few folk can actually train to the degree that overtraining has a negative effect and instead with most folk the fitness gains are just supressed from being fatigued.
If you’re actually overtrained, you’d need more than a day off. Also there wouldn’t be much benefit as you’ve wrecked your body to a point where it can’t compensate.
If you’ve just “trained hard” and are fatigued now, yes you might get fitter. You still might need more than a day off.
You need to break the thought process that recovering is not helping you get faster. You can only maximize yiur training if you are getting appropriate rest and recovery.
If you feel that fatigued, one day will do nothing. One week will barely make a dent. You need more time off. Bad sleep especially will severely limit how much you can train.
In my experience, the ideal training volume is a bit less than what you want to train for. Just like with coffee, leaving you wanting for more is a great way to ensure you are motivated, you sleep well and you are not at the very edge of what is possible given your constraints.
Thanks all. Some very interesting thoughts on volume, over-reaching and adequacy of rest - all of which I recognise.
However I’d also really appreciate any thoughts on where/if/how any benefit comes from being in a hole (whether you call it overreached/under-recovered as shades of a low level of overtraining, or at least, having trained overly for the amount of recovery you’ve given yourself).
Stopping for a few days for sure - but for example - is there a point at which you’ve overdone it and there is no super compensatory effect?
There isn’t a fitness benefit to actual overtraining. If you’ve overtrained, you’ve made yourself ill, and have to take quite a bit of time off and start from a lower level again. It’s the fitness equivalent of burnout and depression.
The silver lining could be that you get to re-evaluate your lifestyle choices, and maybe that you realised something was wrong before it got even more serious. It’s like crashing your car - there isn’t any actual benefit from it, apart from that you might learn to drive more carefully and that you might have walked away without any more serious injuries.
That said, I don’t really think you’re seriously overtrained, you’re likely just tired from doing a bit too much, and some time off will fix it. Get back to training when your sleep is back to normal and you feel motivated, but not in an addicted cravings type of way.
What has your nutrition been like? Are you simply under-fuelled?
Also, with headaches and bloating etc if you think there is other stuff going on it would be worth getting yourself checked over…
The silver lining is that you’ve been smart enough to recognise that you’ve been overdoing it a bit. In my eyes this puts you in a very select group.
My advice would be to block off the next week as total recovery. Give it three days then ask yourself honestly if you’re excited about training again.
I reckon if you’re smart over this coming week and then adapt your next block of training slightly to try minimise that overdoing it feeling, then you’ll be flying by spring.
A good old winter grind often pays dividends. Sometimes you can feel you’re too close to the edge, so recognise this as you have done and keep moving forward.