Could this be overtraining?

I’m a 44 year old cyclist who has run into some serious issues. I have been a cyclist since I was a teenager but especially the last few years I’ve been riding a lot. End of March I had a sudden loss of power and control of my left leg while I was walking and I fell down, I remained fully conscious during this ordeal. This whole episode lasted a second because I immediately regained control and power again and could stand back up on my own. Since that event I’ve been struggling with very tired legs and constant muscle fasciculations, especially in my calves but also sometimes in my quads, hamstrings, back and shoulders.

Fearing some kind of neuromuscular issue I had a full checkup by a neurologist (head CT scan, MRI of brain and spine, EMG of both legs and a general neurologic exam. My neurologist could not find anything that could explain all of this, all tests came back normal and my general blood work was also normal. The conclusion of the neurologist was that there are no indications that I have a neuromuscular condition or disease. 2 months after this event I still feel like crap. I have heavy / fatigued legs, muscle fasciculations, trembling hands sometimes. This happened end of March at the end of a 6 week training block, 4 weeks of 10-15 hours - 600/750 tss and 2 easy weeks of 4 hours - 230 tss. In January I did not do a whole lot of training and the last block before that was structured training on TR from end of October 2020 until mid December 2020 (4-6 hours week / 300-350 tss).

Clearly I’m still suffering from something, I never felt like I was overreaching during that last 6 week block. In fact the day before the leg incident I did a 4h30 minute ride and I felt fine until that sudden incident happened the day after. Symptoms I have are as i mentioned, tired / heavy legs, muscle fasciculations especially in calves but also sometimes in upper leg muscles and back, trembling hands. The total loss of power and control of my left leg was a one time event that seems to have triggered all of this. I want to have opinions on this because I never read that a sudden loss of control and power of a limb as a sign of OTS.

Sounds like something else. I would seek another opinion from a sports doctor and/or a specialist. Additionally, look into getting tested for Adrenal fatigue.

1 Like

Might want to check in with a cardiologist asap

1 Like

Note that fasciculations and sore/tired legs are directly linked. Check out this: Benign fasciculation syndrome - Wikipedia

I’ve been dealing with this for 2 years now. First I got really down the neuromuscular disease rabbit hole, but after multiple check ups and hospital stays I’m diagnosed with this. For me it comes on with stress, (not training stress, everyday life and workplace stress) and health anxiety. If I deal with those, my symptoms get better immediately within days, going from twitching 24/7 (especially calves) to barely noticing anything. When my twitches are increasing, so does the fatigue and soreness in my legs, since they never get real rest and are always active.

Thx, I’ve been reading about bfs. Stress is indeed something that is on my radar, I just wonder if it can have such an effect that it can lead to this one time event of sudden loss of limb control and strength. Going through all of this also does not help with stress and anxiety and probably makes it even worse. Glad to hear that you found ways to control and manage it.

thx, I made an appointment with a sports doctor next week