darthweasel

Typically I stick to my regular schedule; every other day 1 hour on stationary bike at between 160 and 200 watts, 1/2 hour on weights.

This resultes in working out 3 times one week, 4 times the next in alternating patterns. All well and good, the progress is quick and obvious...tail end of June a machine I could do one set of 110 pounds and one set of 100 now sees me doing 1 set at 140, 2 at 130 adn 1 at 120. Fair enough.

But last week we did a 46 mile bike ride on my "off" day, I still did gym the next day, then played an hour of tennis the next two off days. Then another 40 mile bike ride Saturday, regular gym Sunday, and took Monday off.

Regular gym Tuesday and tonight the weather was so gorgeous I went for another ride.

At the 15 mile mark I felt a change, at the 20 mile mark my legs were just dead. Ironically, I still was doing 15 mph the last 16 miles (we only averaged 14.6 and 14.3 on the 40 milers) but my legs were more rubbery post-ride than they typically are after longer rides.

I cannot help but think it might be a bit too much in a row...that even though the rides on Saturdays and tonight were "pleasure rides" rather than designed for weight loss/improved fitness that they might be somewhat counterproductive.

I am interested in what others think on this. I am tempted to just do the weights tomorrow and rest my legs...I think that is the wise course. But then again, I am no expert on the matter...jury?

handcycle2005

You absolutely did too much. Rest the legs until they feel fresh, it may take more than a day or two.
This is a case of acute overtraining, it should resolve quickly with rest.

Classic signs of chronic overtraining-listlessness, lack of enthusiasm for training or other activities, lingering fatigue beyond normal, slight illness, insomnia or excessive sleepiness,
slight depression, appetite and performance.


Rather vague and it's why it can creep up on you. A chronic case can sometimes take weeks to resolve.

vabeachgirlNYC

One word...Injury.

If you do not give your muscles a rest you may find yourself nursing an injury. I have learned to give my body a break because I got tired of injuries side lining me.

I love to run/bike/blade/swim/dance and felt like I had to do it everyday whether I considered it exercise or just for fun. I also did heavy weights, boxing and running 25-50 flights of stairs several days a week. This was in addition to my normal hyper need to climb up or jump over/off of things.

LSS, I would have the occasional small injury but I wore my muscles out and had a serious injury resulting in a broken heel. I was on crutches for over 2 months and miserable. Did I learn my lesson? Nope.

Once I was fully recovered I kind of forgot and fell into the over training again which resulted in muscle fatigue, again. I broke a rib in April and believe it or not my first thought wasn't ouch, it was complete denial and telling myself "I swear I will be more careful from now on, don't be broken!" Did I learn my lesson yet? Man I hope so!

VitoVino

Yes, what the others have said. Resting. Resting your body is just as important as exercising when you're working out with a lot of intensity. You've just got to pay attention to what you're body is telling you, and it's obviously telling you "give me a rest".

The most fit athletes in the world (as far as I'm concerned) are the guys in the Tour de France. Even they have built in rest days. But what do they do? They go out and "spin" just to get that lactic acid buildup to dissipate. You could try THAT, for just a few miles, on an off day biking, but any more that that and you're doing more harm than good.

handcycle2005

Lactic acid clears within minutes of ceasing exercise. What remains is fatigue and muscle damage. An easy workout the next day is to promote extra bloodflow/nutrients to the recovering muscles. It MUST be easy, use a heart rate monitor.

The body does it's rebuilding during sleep.

darthweasel

thanks all for the feedback. Good part is I still feel energetic as of this morning and all day...I think I was just gassed at the end of the ride. But will take today off to reset anyhow.


Appreciate the comments. Rock on peeps

ultimark

That "gassed" and "jelly" feeling is depletion of glycogen, which is what your muscles run on. As a general rule it takes 48 hours to recover your glycogen stores after a complete depletion like what your describing (this is the science behind "don't work out on back to back days")

Note that doesn't mean your muscles have recovered 100%, but don't let that stop you from exercising again. Athletes are NEVER at 100% while training (look up "tapering").

gerrymcd

I have to agree with other posters - sounds like you didn't take enough recovery time.

I used to work out with a cycling coach (former professional mountain biker). Compared to how I would have worked out on my own she wanted a ton of recovery time. And would have me do workouts where I thought 'is that it?' because we appeared to do not much more than an extended warmup!

Meggietye

Lance Armstrong wrote a book I read years ago, I can't quote him but he said something about not feeling alive unless he was experiencing pain, and lots of it. It gave me insight about him, and not in a good way, it was sad.

VitoVino

I'm sure he didn't mean just pure pain, like in torture pain. I'm sure he meant pushing the envelope where the endorphins kick in. Pain is a matter of due course for all professional bike racers. They are the epitome of physical endurance, unparalleled by any other sport except perhaps marathon runners. They all suffer a great deal of pain, especially during a race like the Tour de France when they are going up and over some of the worlds tallest mountains. The high they get outweighs the pain, but only because their bodies are in peak condition.