Yep, it's like eczema. The more you scratch at it, no matter how little, it just keeps getting worse. It won't go away until you leave it the hell alone.

You can't "take it easy" and train through overtraining. You have to take a straight 10 days off where you do NOTHING but eat well, sleep a lot and let your body repair itself. It's that simple... unless you've really fried yourself and need even more time off. But training through it doesn't do anything but prolong it and put you deeper in that hole.

Yep, this sh*t is for real. Gonna come back hopefully stronger but definetly smarter.!!

I was just told yesterday that all my issues are from overtraining.

My GP hasn't been able to figure out why I haven't made any progress with all my injuries so he sent me to a physiatrist. It was the physiatrist that said I'm basically fine and that I've just overtrained. I wasn't expecting that at all and still can't believe that that's the case. I've booked an apb with my GP to see what he thinks but it's not for 10 days.

In a nut shell, from mid 2011 to mid 2012 I developed a laundry list of injuries/issues. I basically kept going until I got Osteitis Pubis in May of 2011. By August 2011 I could hardly walk. I still felt desperate to train and race. I've only had one cold since then and any lethargy or depression is just because I physically am so damn uncomfortable and basically can't do anything without making things worse (things like sleeping on a diff mattress or traveling).

My only other suspect symptoms were increasing issues with muscle cramping that drinking, salt tabs, nothing seemed to stop. And on the bike after about 30 minutes of riding I'd feel nauseous and nothing would get rid of it.

I shut down training in May of 2011, but every time I'd feel a bit better in terms of the Osteitis Pubis I'd try an easy swim or bike, but it always set something off.

By Christmas of 2012 I thought the OP was pretty good and I tried to start up again. Seemed to be going well so, like an idiot, I jumped from no training to 25 hrs a week in just over a month. All low intensity biking and swimming, no running. Started to feel extreme fatigue and the unexplainable nausea was back. By the beginning of Feb my back and neck issues really flared up to the point where I was in constant discomfort 24/7.

For the last 7-8 months I've done nothing up until the last couple weeks. I've felt able to do a bit of walking and have started very gently Pilates. I still experience flare-ups and all of the injury/issues (about 10 different things) I developed in the beginning are still going. The only real difference is that I'm less uncomfortable.

Much to my amazement I haven't gained any weight.

Only other thing I can think of is that sleeping is a major PITA. Restless and completely unsatisfying.

I'd be curious to know if anyone has had a similar experience. 2 days ago I was still under the impression that I just had a bad back and that everything somehow was connected to that. Have had blood work (looks fine) and a lumbar MRI which showed a small bulge and annular tear (nothing major). I've seen a ton of physio, etc, worked on my posture and done a crap load of gently 'rehab' type core exercises. Nothing really makes much of a difference. I certainly haven't found a quick fix to anything.

Whatever this is it affects every aspect of my life and at this rate of improvement I expect I have at least another 6 months before the injury/issues resolve themselves.

If this is overtraining all I can think is that my muscles just can't repair themselves. I'd love to know if there's something I can do to help them. I don't eat a lot of protein, but maybe I need to start. I've also thought about magnesium supplements. Not sure what else. Of course I will check all this with my GP, but if any one has any tips I'll pretty much do anything.

Can you explain what your poor sleep symptoms are, could be due to very high cortisol at night.

Just wanted to check in with you guys who have contributed to this thread, how are things going ?

Depending on the level of stress in one's life, base level of fitness, nutrition, and mental & spiritual practices, it can take weeks, months, or even over a year to recover depending on how deep the hole is. It can affect one's biophysiology for life. The body and mind need adequate perfusion of O2 and nutrients so some movement is needed. But start with a few days of complete rest and nothing more than walking. Record your waking HR (before rising) every morning and track its trends--even small increases indicate a potential issue.

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/Howie Nordström

I'm back to believing that my issues are basically back related.

I'm able to do a lot of walking, hiking, rehab exercises and a little easy riding. Haven't tried running yet and swimming is still a problem.

How are you doing?

I am no triathlete (elite rower/ full-time athlete. Male, 28). Posting here, as this is the best thread on OTS I have seen on the web so far. Might be helpful to you guys, as my situation/symptoms was pretty similar to yours. Plus, I had to leave the record of my ordeal somewhere!

Basically, got a virus last summer (mid-August) and trained through it as I always do. Felt a bit unwell after, but it seemed to be going away, so I just kept on going. About a week later I have noticed an abnormally loud (and annoying) heart rate after finishing a session. Every single beat would literally shake my chest. I stopped exercising immediately, however, sadly it was too late.

Over the next two weeks I have had all of my flu symptoms back (muscle pain/general malaise, blocked nose, headaches) with the soddin’ ‘loud’ HR on top. Resting HR was abnormally high (for me), a massive jump from around 41 bpm to approx. 64 bpm. I have also developed annoying nausea which nothing seemed to get rid of. My appetite was non-existent; a full-blown fight/flight anxiety kicked in – insomnia followed as a result. Add on a crushing, persistent fatigue and you will get the whole picture – was having to persuade myself to have a bloody shower in the morning! Med tests (ECG, bloods) came back normal.

I had absolutely no desire to train, but was pretty anxious about losing my place in our group of pros. This led to two premature comeback attempts in late September, which only made things worse and completely killed off any health improvements I made over previous weeks.

It seemed like a ‘normal’ virus/post-viral so I thought I’d just rest it out. Haha, nope. I was in for a ride of my life. Nausea stayed until late November and would drive me up the wall some weeks, never threw up anything, though. Blocked nose stayed until mid-October, with muscle pain going away in early November. Fatigue began to disappear around then as well. Total time needed to kill the symptoms was 3.5 months, did not feel the urge to come back to any training for another full month after my symptoms died.

Why it happened? I have not rested enough – actually not had any rest during off season for my entire rowing career – solid 8 years. That (and some occasional academic/uni. stress) is the only reason that immediately springs to mind. I have always handled volume and power/weight sessions well, no matter what was said in the programme. I guess my body just wanted some time off and had to make me sick so I rested.

My symptoms: lowered body temp (36.1 C, enough to make me very cold), persistent nausea/GI stress, strong fatigue, lack of appetite, muscle pains, insomnia, ‘loud’ and elevated HR.

A few things I found useful in my situation:

-Forget about your sporting career – the sooner you do it, the sooner you’ll recover. Sport is no more for you, period. Take your mind off sport and play on your PS3 all day (I doubt you’d find power to do anything more productive with this stupid fatigue). Watch comedy. Play with your cat/dog. Get fat, if you can – I could not put any ‘recovery weight’ on until about 3 months into my OTS when my symptoms started improving.

-Take a lot of time off (I hate the word ‘rest’ – hardly applicable when you want to spill your guts for months!). No training whatsoever, go for short walks only if you absolutely must. If you feel like staying in and doing nothing then this is exactly what you should do. Read books or somth. To all those in full-time jobs – find ways to take at least 1 month off. Lie and cheat if you have to – I doubt your bosses will find you productive with a full-blown OTS anyway.

-Do not get caught in in the ‘cortisol/DHEA/whateverda****elsethereis’ hype, unless you are SURE you have these out of whack! My hormone tests came back normal, the only thing off was the estradiol/progesterone ratio, with estradiol being prevalent. I did nothing to correct this and it was not needed in the end. A point on blood pressure – mine was a perfect 120/70 throughout the OTS. I guess its individual.

-Diet – I just ate what I wanted (provided my stomach allowed it). Tons of veg and potatoes, meat and fish, dark chocolate, fresh fruit and bread. Force food down if you know you haven’t eaten enough. No fuel – no recovery.

-Research OTS and ask tough questions to yourself. Find things that did you in and figure out what do you want from your sport. Give up any unrealistic goals and rosy Olympic dreams for the time being. You time will eventually come, but it won’t be until you found and fixed most of the issues that set you back in being a successful athlete.
-Supplements – looking back, nothing really helped apart from two: Vit B15 and Piracetam. These put your CNS back into place and clam you down in process. I have made massive recovery progress after only two weeks on B15 (1g/day).

I suppose, I was lucky – I am funded through my relatives’ business and have no pressure on me to get back out until I feel 100% fixed. Not having to work also helps enormously.

Good luck and peace be with ya all!

For me, iam approaching six months away from training. Sleep has improved some, only waking twice to pee , but still only manage 6 hrs total. I was able to ride twice last week, took it easy. HR was highish, but I think after the time off, I am now just fat and unfit. I have put about 14 pounds on during the layoff.
Mentally, I am not sure if I will be able to get back to serious training, as in the back of my mind, iam thinking what's to stop it happening again. I am still working nights and rotating shifts, which iam sure must have contributed to it. I am actually thinking of selling all my racing gear and just riding to stay in shape.
The heavy heartbeat has gone, and the latest of the cardio tests, a CT scan came back all clear.
Iam going to just ride, ignore the PM, and see how the desire goes.

Can you give more information on those supplements. I googled B15 and it says it is illegal in the USA.
Thanks

Re B15 - yep, I've heard that the FDA banned it (been legal to sell in the 70s, though). It is still widely used in northern Europe (where I am) and in Russia/FSU - if you wanted to buy any, I guess you would have to go through Ebay or find yourself a decent German website that will do a euro sale. There is a lot of very sciency stuff out there on B15, but its significance for athletes narrows down to being an anabolic process stimulant. It forces your body into recovery state, speeding up the recovery process.

Can you read any other languages? I speak a few, there are a ton of Russian publications on overtraining, which the Ruskis also rather unimaginatively call 'a sporting disease'. The belief out there seems to be that when a serious bout of overtraining occurs it is your CNS that needs to be treated first. To me that makes sense - overtraining gets you depressed, obsessive-compulsive and what have you. The body has to clam down to recover and needs to be helped into it. Drugs prescribed for overtraining include 'nootropics' - what Piracetam (Nootropil) is. Again, it seems to be a banned drug in the US for some daft reason, so you'd have to look for alternative supply routes. Having said this, I have not actually got around to taking a lot of Piracetam - my symptoms improved on B15 alone. I am not usually keen on any sort of dietary supplements/stimulants and prefer to eat healthy instead. So yep, a month on B15 did it for me. But if you are really nuked, you may want to consider some WADA-approved heavy medical artillery.

FWIW, in 2012 I went through what I now attribute to overtraining syndrome as multiple doc visits / tests could not get a definitive diagnosis for the extreme fatigue, headaches up the back of my head, and nausea - made worse by exercise - a 'relapse' would last weeks.

After 4 months and out of desperation I went to a naturopath - within a week of following her instructions I went for a 20 minute walk/run coz I was starting to feel better - I very, very, very slowly eased back into training - relapses became shorter, less intense - took about 6 months before they petered out - now only have occasional day of mild fatigue.

She had me take:
4,000 IU vit D (from 1,000)
Increase protein intake (so now, in addition to a dead animal everyday, I also consume protein powder just to make sure I get enough)
L-Carnitine
L-Glutamine
Ratava (very hard to find, but has lots of NAC, so I just take NAC instead)

I'm very much a evidence-based kind of guy, so skeptical about naturopath medicine, but for me, there's no getting around my n=1 evidence.

Hope this helps.

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Advocating for research & treatment for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME).
http://www.meaction.net/about/what-is-me/

"Suck it up, Buttercup"
(me, to myself, every day)

You are so correct that the pathophysiology of OTS remains a mystery. Anyone with OTS is like the lone ranger exploring on their own. The unknown makes for opportunists to sell products like B15 and medical services such as acupuncture without good evidence behind them.

OTS is like the early stage of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Keep your eyes on research for treating CFS.

First and foremost, I do not have a degree is physiology, so this post is based all on personal experience. I find when I am over training my motivation drops and I start getting an itchy throat and foggy head. The worst symptom for me is that I cannot sleep at night at all. As soon as I feel these symptoms coming on, I immediately back off training..even take a day off completely to rest. I load up on Emergen-C and Boiron Oscilloccinum. The second one is a homeopathic supplement that I find brings me back quickly. Drink lots of water and eat a ton of calories ..esp good fats..so your body can recover. I know it is hard to take off time training completely because we are all Type A freaks, but it is better to have a few 0 days and get out of the funk quickly instead of dragging out a bunch of sloppy days. Hope this helps!

LG

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Website/Blog|Lauren Goss Racing |Follow me @lauren_goss
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Thanks for your post. The foggy head (almost feels dream like, trouble word finding, generally dull) in combo with terrible sleep and with a particularly bad case, night sweats, are when I know I'm in trouble too. I haven't ever tried either of these things, but will the next time, though definitely hoping there won't be a next time :)

Thank you for posting. I self-diagnosed with OTS last December after overreaching in training for several months and avoiding any real downtime for years. My case was really only a slap on the wrist compared to some. Nevertheless, it was scary enough to provide a much needed reality check.


My symptoms included:

• sharp decline in performance (decent fitness/form to complete wreck in two weeks)
• foggy and depressed
• chronic early morning insomnia (this was an early warning sign months before things really fell apart)
• inability to gain weight despite being underweight (BMI < 19)

Don't expect your GP/family doctor to be an expert on endurance athlete overtraining. I had to be my own advocate with my GP and tell him what to test. Fortunately, he was eager to do research and consult colleagues. A comprehensive blood test showed that free testosterone was practically nil (one third of the minimum reference range for all men, probably even lower for a guy in his early 20s), ferritin was low, and some other markers (cortisol, hemoglobin, hematocrit, TSH) were scraping the limits of acceptable ranges.

I started to turn the corner after slashing my training load and avoiding any higher intensity for several weeks. The recovery process probably would have been expedited if I was disciplined enough to take complete rest. I also gradually gained about 10 lbs, treated my insomnia, worked on managing stress more effectively, and started supplementing iron, B12 and Vitamin D. Testosterone bounced back to acceptable (but still unspectacular) levels after a few weeks. Mentally and physically, the improvement was remarkable. I realized how worn out I'd been for months. A few months later I was back in top form.

For me sleep is an excellent barometer for how well I am managing my training load. It's usually the first thing to suffer when I overreach and I track it carefully.

I wrote a series of posts about the experience and the many changes I made following. Intro post: Fit, fast and far from healthy

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This article seems to make sense and the signs and symptoms may support the connection between CFS and OT.

http://www.drmyhill.co.uk/...itochondrial_Failure

Took me about a month when it happened last season. My suggestion: don't exercise for more than 30 mins per day, well below threshold at that too. Take the extra time to enjoy yourself--you'll recover much, much faster if you're mentally happy and not emotionally feeling like shit about your body feeling like shit. If you need to work out, hit the gym and do stability/core stuff, it'll definitely help you in the long run more than slogging through zone 1/2 stuff. Just my thoughts.

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Really interesting article. Makes a lot of sense. Are you trying any of the things the author mentions?

You mentioned that you work nights. Any chance of being able to change that? I'm under the impression that working nights is one of the most stressful things on the body. At least I think I read that somewhere.

I wouldn't t sell off the race gear just yet.

And as for worrying about being able to avoid this happening again, I'm guessing you'll be a bit of an expert on the signs and symptoms by the time this is done. It probably isn't likely to sneak up on you again or rather, you'll know better than to ignore the signs.

At any rate, one step at a time.

Thank you so much for the link - especially since I'm in day 3 of a relapse, my first multi day relapse since May - the article speaks to my experience and validated the tact taken by the naturopath I saw.

I'm seeing a new GP next week, hope to develop a collaborative relationship with him as the current GP has zilch empathy and hostile toward linking my symptoms with CFS.

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Advocating for research & treatment for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME).
http://www.meaction.net/about/what-is-me/

"Suck it up, Buttercup"
(me, to myself, every day)

Sorry to hear of your relapse. Did it come out of the blue or did you get warning signs. Do you think you ramped up too quickly ?

Have you had your Thyroid levels checked?

Worked for me, I'm on Synthroid and feel much better.

I'm currently in week 3.5 of my 4-5 week off training cycle. I put in 2 years of straight racing, bouncing from Triathlon to Cyclocross after I picked up the sport in 2011. I had great abilities in the beginning, won my AG for triathlons and was repeating wins or podium finishes in both the cat 4 and cat 3 cross races, competed at collegiate nationals blah blah blah.

This year, I've only had one successful race and everything has been sub par. I never feel in a groove when I was racing, and people who I used to dominate in cross aren't getting any faster, and I'm only getting slower... Not for a lack of trying, since I'm still trying to knock out 15 ish hours a week.


Overtraining sucks, and I think the psychological aspect people have with it is that if they're not training they are getting slower. I think it just takes some time to get into the mindset that regardless of how much you train and how far you reach, if you're overtrained you will not see much of an improvement... And the only way to achieve better results is to not train...


So yeah... 1-1.5 more weeks off, followed by a good solid month-2 months of LSD, with a week of higher intensity leading up to XTERRA west champs.