What were you seeing and feeling while training? Was your HR low or high compared to your power?
I am asking because the last two weeks I have been seeing lower and lower power with higher heart rate. Even easy rides at 75% max hr feel like I have done a 3 hour race, I have a headache and takes me hours to recover. Last month training at this level would be effortless. Blood work with all those markers recommended are within labs range. GP says to stay off bike and no other tests.
I am curious to see if there are any Neuroendocrine or Functional Medicine doctors in Toronto Canada.
It’s been a while since Ive posted and hope everyone is doing well, Basically the last 3 years have been a very slow road to partial recovery and finding my energy levels coming back. I still have days where I am too tired to do much but the last month I have been able to do some very easy rides. Surprisingly I still have some endurance. As I am now 61, I have never felt my age ( or rode like it ) but one day a few years ago I could not finish my interval and from then on it was a slow downward spiral of chronic fatigue. I can only say, especially the older athletes, be careful with your recovery. I did ease off my intensity , I had to, because I couldn’t hit my previous numbers but In retrospect maybe with guidance I might have been told to shut it down completely for a month or two. Everyone Ive reached out to in the cycling community didn’t know of any remedy or protocol for recovery except to wait it out. It’s been great to be able to ride once or twice a week now, hopefully the recovery will continue.
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Yes, I saw an Endocrinologist and all those values were good! Somebody mentioned low Adrenals levels but that was never evident with testing.
Thanks for responding.
Kevin
same, and people think I look at least 10 years younger. Three years ago I switched to doing mostly endurance, and ‘hard’ intervals. But fewer intervals than you would see in TR plans. More along the lines of the number of intervals I see in FasCat or CTS/Strava or Velocious plans. A few times a year I go really deep. Hired a coach late 2020 to help me navigate and after a year of trial and error we found a path thats working for me. My power data starts October 2016, the start of my second year cycling, and this past 6 months I’ve been hitting some power PRs (around 5-sec, 15-sec, 1-min, 2-min, and 20-min). Riding 4 or 5 times a week, about 8 hours average.
Lucky to have found a local primary care physician that is ten years younger and runs marathons and cycles, no health issues and not on any prescription drugs. Middle of the pack genetics and on 8th year cycling, not fast but not slow.
To your point on recovery, I’ve come to believe it is something you build into your training. For myself, doing more endurance work slowly builds up the capacity to do more work, and establishes a foundation to do harder work - without a high recovery cost - to your point on recovery. My current view - some people like myself, underestimate the amount of off-the-bike stress, and attempt training plans with too much intensity given their level of conditioning (endurance work) to support that amount of intensity.
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