I am sure that someone with way more knowledge will jump in here shortly but I went through the same type situation while training for my first half and come to find out I wasn't fueling properly. You can't expect your body to do well if you don't feed it enough. just my .02

Thanks for the input! Are you talking about fueling during exercise or before/after?

Lack of motivation. I always could tell I was over-trained on cycling group rides when going up hills hard, just no power in the legs with a reduced cardiopulmonary response (relatively low HR, not breathing that hard). I assume it was some kind of blunted hormonal response that wasn't allowing me to "get it up" so to speak. Not sure how that would manifest itself in the longer steadier efforts of triathlon.

Can I suggest (highly) for you to listen to Matt Dixon's Purple Patch podcasts? He seems to have a really good handle and organization about getting all the important things you need in place to stay healthy and motivated for triathlon.

Mine was a fueling overall issue. I wasn't taking in the necessary carbs and protein my body needed before during and after exercise.

Without having lots of other big picture information it's difficult to say (years training, previous experience, structure of your training programme, other life stressors etc.).

Firstly, I suppose one rule of thumb could be that if you don't have any obvious life stressors (heavy workload, nagging wife/partner (I'm serious), money worries/whatever) and you don't want to train or are exhausted, when you previously have been okay, then that could be a first symptom and you should back off until you are refreshed to go again.

Secondly, you shouldn't be overtrained half way through a training programme. Unless you made it yourself and have screwed up. Or are using an 'advanced programme' and until a month ago you haven't run 5k (or something like that.). So I would also step back and look at that.

Thirdly, you can do things such as monitor your resting HR every morning, or your HR variability (HRV4 is a good app), and also how your HR responds to your warm up and changes of pace. These will all give good indications of something not being right - but you need a history to build a picture for this. (start doing it now.)

Finally - if you are over training and are on a well set programme, then you need to look at why. Nutrition (as already mentioned) is the obvious one, followed by poor sleep. Then poor recovery more broadly (a long family walk with the kids will not help after a long run :-) )

In the meantime, keep it ticking over (easy stuff consistently) until you do want to push it.

Hope that is all something to think about. I'm not a coach but have been doing this for quite a long time. Am sure others more qualified will also contribute.

I've noticed that myself. What did you do to help change that?

I've had that experience before - I used to think it was normal, but now that I'm more educated about it, it's likely an early sign of the beatdown from training, and possibly overtraining if you continue to ignore it and keep hammering it out.

One key point that's not obvious and I had to learn the hard way (but has been reported by coaches) - just because you can continue to "PR" key workouts in this state and the following weeks doesn't mean you are safe from overtraining.

In fact, one coach (?Dixon from purplepatch possibly, but I forget which one, but he was a reliable one) mentioned that one sign of overtraining is feeling like you have to hit those PRs during quality sessions but are afraid that you'll fall off a fitness cliff if you ease up on the gas, as your physical state is becoming increasingly fragile.

For sure, in my overtrained triathlons/marathons, this happened to me - I incorrectly reasoned, "well I'm still PRing the speedwork,tempowork and even PRd my 5k/10k" but when the big dance came up, I dramatically underperformed, as I wasn't recovered, even after a 2-week real taper. So don't assume you're good to go just because your body can still hit some hard workout targets. Mental + physical fatigue and lack of desire to train is a good early warning.

These are probably big factors. I know that I've been facing some stress at work lately and poor sleep habits along with poor/inconsistent nutrition. Those will be the first things I should address.

Also, I am working on a training plan that I kinda pulled off the internet and tweaked to fit my schedule. How can you tell if a training plan is good or crap?

I'd suggest spiting this into two (connected) problems:
- Exhausted daily
- Drive/desire to train

My guess would be that the first comes from either doing too much too soon, or not fueling enough both during & around the workouts.

Doing that for a while could've caused the lack of drive, but it could've been a bunch of other reasons.

If you've actually taken a week (or at least a few days) off, I'd suggest getting back to doing something (anything) for a few days & throw some treats at it (sweets, chocolate, whatever).

Sometimes to get out of the funk you've just gotta do something, an easy run/ride with someone, shorter than usual swim, whatever to get the ball rolling again. Once rolling then it's normally easier to get back on course.

Well you shouldn't underestimate how poor recovery can derail the best laid plans (especially if you aren't young.)

You could ask around slowtwitch about the plan but it is probably okay as long as you haven't picked the 'experienced triathlete plan' :-)
As others have said, I'd keep taking it easy, eat right, and wait for the spark to come back. Don't potentially dig yourself further into a hole.

When I was training for my first IM two years ago I was always exhausted and felt weak. And this made me lose motivation. I didn't have a very good season that year...

Upon initial reflection, it was almost all attributed to my fueling before, during and after my workouts as well as my sleep habits. To a lesser extent it was how hard I was going out for each training session.

This time around I'm fueling well during particular workouts and especially shortly afterwards. I've also started to incorporate more substantial (healthy) snacks in between meals. One example being a handful of almonds in a Siggi's icelandic yogurt. And, I'm keeping to a good sleep schedule with at least 8 hours per night.

Also important to note, I'm following my plan much more to the letter - if it says go easy, I'm going easy. I had a tendency to approach every workout Hard.

It's a learning process... all the time.

Good luck with your puzzle.

This may sound simplistic, but the 2 times this happened with me it was due to food. Both times I had cut out more fats than my body could deal with. To correct it I didnt just go to McD and pig out, but make sure you are getting enough Saturated, Poly and Unsaturated fats. My goto is Peanut butter and Eggs (not together, ewww!).

To be honest, it's very difficult for an AG athlete to overtrain. However, being fatigued can easily happen. If you're exhausted every day, when I was in the Army I PTd, Played Rugby, and Weight trained, so five days a week I'd have two workouts and then one each on Saturday and Sunday. Was I fatigued? Yes. Overtrained, not really. Overtraining happens to elite athletes and they have to drop their volume a lot.

Two things to combat fatigue, eat more of the right KCALs so your body can recover and get more sleep. If that isn't doing it, dial back your volume significantly and rebuild again.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Unless you're training 30+ hours a week then you're not overtrained. HTFU and stop being a baby and feeling sorry for yourself. It's not easy for any of us to train day in and day out.

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Instagram or twitter me softly @xatefrogg

Def strongly disagree here. It's actually not hard for an AGer to overtrain. I used to feel exactly like you did, in that overtraining was only for the 25+hr /wk elites but now that I'm older, wiser, and having been burned more than a few times, it's very clear that AGers can overtrain pretty readily.

Note that there are different degrees of overtraining. I encompass overtraining now as training in excess of your optimal gaining stimulus so you are actually decreasing race target performance by doing more. You can still put up a good race if you haven't really deeply overtrained, but you'll still be missing putting up a GREAT race where you feel awesome, sharp, and ready to rock.

Contrast with the stories of long term deep chronic overtraining, where an elite runner has a hard time even stringing together a 5 mile training run at 8 min/mile, and it stays that way for months+. That takes a lot more beatdown, but is really just a super severe form of it.

A big thing that has really gotten me is the combo of life stressors + training at age 40+. I def subscribe to Matt Dixon's 'overall life stress load' as a training limiter, and having a job+young kid has really forced me to pay attention to it, as I've done entire workout plans to the T that have worked for me when I was younger, but just blew me up for subpar race day.

Since then, I've focused a LOT more on rest and cut back training volume at least 25%. Hitting my highest USAT scores now, with a lot less hours per week spent compared to my younger best scores. Quality of workout and excitement to train has gone up a lot, which makes all the difference.

I don't see how anyone can answer your question without more details. Here's a place to start:

• How fit were you when you started this training program?
• How long have you been on this training program?
• How many hours were you doing per week when you flamed out?
• How much of this time was high intensity? (I.e., all out intervals of, say, 8 mins duration or less)
• Have you been losing weight over this period?

I know I have limited experience here, but I think I'm learning that your body can only handle so much at a time. I am training for my first HIM with the longest distance I've ever done in endurance sports being a HM. I think I do go out and try to race every single workout instead of allowing there to be the right amount of variability between my hard and easy days. I also just recently got married and switched jobs. So right now I've got a good amount of life stress on top of taking on a big training load. I think I may have just put myself right on the edge so that any increased stress or anything would tip me over it. I am learning the value of scaling up my training instead of diving in the middle as well as giving myself proper recovery through rest and nutrition.

I think I just tried to write a check that my body and mind weren't quite able to cash. Now I'm having to recover from that. Thank you everyone for the tips!

Anything else I should know to help maximize my first 70.3?

I would say I was moderately fit. I could swim a mile comfortably, ride 25 miles comfortably, and run 8 miles comfortably. (all individually and not fast, but they didn't tax me.)
I have been on this plan about 8 weeks.
I have been getting up between 12-15 hours per week.
I was doing very little all out intervals, but probably 60-75% was at an intense effort.
I actually have had a net weight gain since starting training

Take a 10 day recovery block, with a goal of getting back on schedule by next weekend... take a day or two off, keep your HR down when you do excercise, focus on sleep, do some zone 2 easy stuff with nothing hard, and see if you feel better by next weekend.

My question for you guys talking about fueling being the issue... How do you know if you are fueling enough.

For example, Today, I did:
50 min swim (2200 yards)
1:30 trainer with high RPM intervals
45 minute run (5.2 miles)

According to my Garmin, I will have burned 3,042 calories by the end of the day. Does that sound about right? 40yr, 6ft male, 138 pounds.

How old are you?

Others might disagree, but based on the above I don't think it's possible you're overtrained in the real sense of the word -- meaning you need a multi-week recovery. I'd be shocked if a few days of going easy wouldn't bring you to 100% rarin' to go. If it doesn't, I'd bet something else is up, like a virus or allergies or something like that.

Sounds like you need about 8 ribeyes tonight!

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Your wife and family have left you.

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-Of course it's 'effing hard, it's IRONMAN!
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