Thanks for all your insights on this subject. Here's my story. It parallels some experiences and symptoms that I've read in all the stories above.

I’m a 48 year old male (47 when my symptoms first came on) and I overtrained for an Olympic Distance Triathlon. I was overtrained when I did it, I knew that much. I thought I could recover afterwards – I was obviously very wrong. After the event I took two weeks off and then went for a morning swim. I wasn’t 100% OK but I thought I could push through it. The morning after, I awoke to my heart racing away uncontrollably. I thought, well, I can’t do that for a while and I decided to just stick to my second favourite sport of table tennis, once a week at my son’s club. Roll forward five days and after a very intense game of table tennis my heart let out a giant thud that felt like it exploded. I stopped all physical activity immediately. The date was 1/07/2014.

Here follows a summary of the months between July and December.
July
I almost checked into A&E a dozen times. Sometimes, I could hardly walk across the room. My sleep was highly disturbed and blood pressure (as confirmed by a doctor) was dangerously high. My resting heart rate was up in the 70’s and sometimes in the 80’s. I had brain fog and couldn’t concentrate for my work as a computer programmer. But I managed to keep my head above water so no-one really noticed. I also had a few times the very worrying symptoms of groups of large raised goose bumps appearing on my arms. They were fleeting i.e. they would last one or two seconds and go. Dr Google seems to suggest that they are down to poor nuero-transmitters. But general medical practice doesn’t know much about them due to their fleeting nature. Thankfully, I have not experienced that again.
August
I had two holidays both lasting a week. I slept loads and was on my feet all day outside. I improved so much that I almost got better. I still had brain-fog or a slight change in perception that wouldn’t go away. Heart rate was a down to 63 BPM (but still not my normal resting heart rate of 57) even in the morning.
September
Was a pretty much up and down month where I was tired and lacking energy practically all the time. Sleep was slightly below average but was disturbed just a few nights.
October
This is where my sleep problems started. I would manage 5-6 hours sleep most nights and sometimes even less at 4-5. I was always lacking energy and being out of sorts. My circadian rhythm was out of whack. I would wake up at 4:00am with a terrible hunger and I would need to defecate and for the life of me I couldn’t get back to sleep.
November
This was much the same as October only sometimes it was worse. So bad in fact, that after one night of 4 hours sleep I had a nervous break-down. It was weird, because I’m a very mentally stable person. My son said something to me in the morning and I just couldn’t process it - or anything - and the only thing I knew how to do was to burst out crying. I actually contemplated suicide that day.
December
Thankfully sleep has improved. I manage 6-7 most nights and sometimes even more. There was the occasional blip of 5-6; but, isn’t there always? I’ve managed some light walking of 5 miles and felt pretty good on my feet for most of the time.
Now that sleep has improved the myriad of symptoms have improved.
Looking forward
Dr. Maffeton (who seems to be the only one that knows what’s going on) mentions that my 3rd stage of overtraining should take 6-12 months to heal. And it looks like it’s going to be the full course.
I have an appointment with the endocrinologist on 15th January. From what I can glean from my symptoms my HPA axis is dysfunctioning (thanks to MarkyV for that). Try to mention this to a doctor (they call it the hypothalamic pituitary axis or HP axis) and they think (to themselves) I’ve got a real hypochondriac on my hands here. I’ve also discovered - and I have it on good authority from a friend who used to teach at Medical school - that 95% of doctors currently in practice have not heard of overtraining syndrome.
I’ll keep this forum posted as to my progress…

Just wanted to make you aware of myalgic encephalomyelitis - you can compare your symptoms and experience with the International Consensus Criteria:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/...011.02428.x/abstract

Once I figured out that was affecting me (after 4 months of no exercise) I started on the treatment protocol and within a week was easing back into 20 min walk/runs.

Good luck.

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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)

What treatment protocol did you follow and what level of exercise are you at now ?

Have the same questions as slalomdude. And how exactly was it diagnosed?

As for me, I'm generally feeling better, but not anywhere close to doing anything endurance-wise. I trained for and ran a 10 mile race in October (~15 minutes slower than last year - so really just a long run at long run pace) and was glad to do it, but haven't been running much sense.

I'm working out ~5 days/week ~50 minutes a time doing a general cross training program (http://www.pureaustinspeedshop.com/rail-training/) and that is going well, but my body doesn't seem to be interested in much more at this moment. I'm working with a nutritionist with a good medical background as well and said she thinks I fit the classical description of chronic (vs acute) overtraining from her sports physiology textbooks. Said chronic can take a few years to come on and can easily take 1-2 years to recover from, but also that some working out during recovery from chronic is good. I think I'm in that boat right now - the working out I'm doing feels good, but anything that looks anymore like endurance training seems to be for the birds :-)

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_________________________________________
Kathleen
http://kcwoodhead.blogspot.com/

I worked with a naturopath and I mostly follow this protocol:
http://drmyhill.co.uk/...itochondrial_Failure
(this doc used to have an easy to find list for treatment protocol, but she's re-designed her site and I couldn't find it)

Regardless, I added:
d-ribose
l-glutamine
l-carnitine
co-q10
NAD

I got sick 10 days before IM Mt Tremblant 2012. Started on the protocol at xmas (like I said, within a week starting run/walk), it took about 2 more months for my symptoms to totally fade. Only raced sprints summer 2013.

Relapsed Dec 2013, not sure why. Took about 2 months to recover. Raced sprint to olympic 13 times this past summer, 10 podiums! (total brag).

Just relapsed again Dec 26 - this time I know why: I failed to keep up with the protocol - just sort of let it taper off - I'm an idiot.

Started back on it and have been feeling better every day - just went for a 20 minute 'test' run at lunch to see if my body reacts negatively in the next few hours (fingers crossed).

Do your symptoms match the criteria - especially the central post-exercise criteria?

---

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)

Just read the article recently, and found that B15 is easily available over here in Europe, even Amazon and even American products.
Over that way I found it on amazon.com as Calcium Pangamate 50 mg (B-15).
Haven't seen it on any doping list, so if anyone could give a link to that....

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-shoki

I didn't see a reference to B15. What is the benefit of supplementation ?

Just found this quickly in English, any other I've seen was in German. Haven't tried it though cause with higher blood pressure I should avoid it.
http://www.onlineholistichealth.com/...5-pangamic-acid.html

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-shoki

Very interesting reading here. I have a similar but slightly unique set of symptoms that I think are related to what other have had here. My story started with a 2-3 year period of increasing training at age 39.

Short version: 3 years of training and racing the hardest I ever have with great results for me.
November 2013 – IMFL (PR, great prep, good recovery after)
April 2014 – Boston Marathon (PR, heavy volume build, good recovery after)
***May 2014 - Bike Trip (#Viral illness during trip#)***
June - August 2014 – severe fatigue and inability to recover from exercise. Sent to cardiology for high heart rates running. Echo showed a probable viral myocarditis. Many weeks of rest. Any attempt to exercise resulted in feeling like crap.
September 2014 – follow-up echo showed normal heart, allowed to exercise normally
Fall 2014 to present - Ramped up the running. Still cannot run back to back days without feeling terrible. I can rest a few days then go for a great run as far as 12-14 miles, but then feel wiped out the next few days. I can run short/medium one day and lift upper body weights the next and feel fine but 2 consecutive days of running is more likely to make me feel sick/exhausted than not. I can do some speed work, but not much. I can do some volume, but not enough.
In short, I cannot regain my form. I cannot recover normally from exercise. I have no idea if this is from the virus still lingering 9 months later or if this tipped me over into overtraining syndrome. I believe I am at risk for OTS as I have always had a much harder time recovering from a hard or long workout than the people I train with. Never was sure why.
My question is what is the next step? Considering some of the labs listed in the articles referenced above. Did anyone here have any truly abnormal labs?

I can only speak to my experience with myalgic encephelomyelitis.

My labs are normal. But that is 'normal' labs.

Your next step:

Compare your symptoms to the international criteria consensus for m.e.

If you meet the criteria, consider reviewing Dr. Myhill's research and taking the supplement protocol (she?) recommends. (I just buy the supplements at my local store, I don't order her supplement package from the UK).

My advice based on my experience - stop all tri training / exercise so the mitochondria have to time and supplements to recover - if you go above their work threshold you will have a relapse (like you have after each run now) - after a week of no exercise, walk only for a few weeks - if feeling all the way back to pre-illness health and symptom free, then start with walk / runs and build up very, very slowly with low heart rate - avoiding a relapse is the priority.

You've been sick for 9 months, be patient and give your body the time in needs to recover - don't rush the training.

If you do meet m.e. criteria and use the supplement protocol, I'd be interested to know of your experience - keep me updated.

---

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)

Thanks for the input. What was your experience with strength training or weights during recovery? I don't seem to get symptoms from this. I feel so normal at rest and after light running that I'm wondering if Ivan just really restrict my activity versus stop all activity.

I also ease back into weights / core, but earlier than aerobic exercise - fewer reps, sets - being careful not to work too hard so I don't go above that invisible threshold that causes a relapse - the more I've recovered, the more I'll do.

Do your symptoms meet the m.e. criteria?

---

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)

My symptoms probably barely meet m.e. criteria. The post-exertional exhaustion/malaise is there. Thankfully, I have no pain. Sleep disturbances are there, but I have a job replete with sleeping disorders due to its stressful nature, so its hard to attribute it to m.e. I have always wondered about the post-exertional malaise I have had that is now much more pronounced. I am definitely considering the testing and may try to find somewher in the U.S. to do it (what was referenced was in the U.K.).

Very good article

http://www.outsideonline.com/1986361/running-empty

It is a good article, but the examples in that article are people with HUGE training loads. I still think the vast majority of amateur IM competitors are suffering from something else. These guys and gals in the article are not only doing huge volume, but they maintain that volume over a period of years. Most who post on here on OTS who have done a year or two at 14/20 hrs a week with a large chunk being biking (even less TdF riders experience this) are suffering from another form of illness.............my two cents

Overtraining or Virus. Hard to tell sometimes. Worth getting checked out to eliminate Virus.

Sometimes unexplained poor performance is caused by a virus. It is possible to check. It's also possible to check if there has been a virus.

Also sometimes stress and depression can be confused with overtraining.

That said, overtraining is very real. Does the overtraining lead to a virus or did the virus cause you to fall to overtraining? Or did stress - depression lead to a virus? Or did the virus lead to depression?

Often it is all interlinked.

There is much evidence hard training leads to fallen immunity to viruses.

Some say, Olbrecht for instance, than too much training at threshold leads to breakdown.

My opinion - dont be afraid of rest days. Don't get too thin. The Froome's and the Wiggins of this world have medical backup which allows them to go places the average athlete dare not go.

I think that most people only look at the stress of training and not total stress. In my case I was training 12-15 hrs, but also working 12 hr rotating shifts, including nightshifts. In my case, those 12-15 hrs combined with the added stress of lack of sleep, messed up circadian rhythm caused me to crash big time. Two years on, no training and things are still right. No viruses and blood work pretty normal.

I get the total stress, but still.believe that whatever the medical condition people are suffering from is rarely OTS. How about the single parent who has two jobs and three kids? Is that OTS?
Do.I believe its real? Yes. Do I think that is,what the average age grouper has when they have some of these symptons? Yes, but a very very small number of them. Some are just burrnt, others have some other condition. Like I said. My two cents.

Hi everyone, here’s my update for the last six months. Thanks to slalomdude for enquiring after me.

January

Sleep was pretty much up and down with no real improvement. In October I discovered blood in my faeces and at the end of January I had some stressful camera work to undergo.

February

Following on from the stress of my flexible sigmoidoscopy I had a nervous breakdown caused by a severe lack of sleep and had three weeks off work. I stopped bleeding down there and the flexi-sig revealed nothing.

Endocrinological tests I had confirmed that my 24hr cortisol was slightly elevated.

March and April

I took the rather drastic decision to change my diet to cut out all unnatural sugars and for the first month at least to limit natural sugars by eating no fruit. I eat a healthy omelette for breakfast with a staple of spinach, tomato and pepper. And sleep went up and up and up. I was sleeping 6-7 and sometimes more.

May

In April I had my mental health assessed by some sort of idiot who concluded that I had a mental health problem and referred me to apsychiatrist. This is such utter fatuous nonsense. But I almost believed him so I started playing table tennis again. Although I was better I still wasn’t feeling right. During one game I became psychologically riled and it had a negative impact on me. The same awful sleep patterns returned. In May my mental health was properly assessed by a trained psychiatrist who concluded that I was basically (mentally) ok.

June

I had a holiday in Centre Parcs where I did some light cycling and fun activities and relaxing swimming with water slides - only then did my body recover from this relapse. During that holiday I slept 8-9, 7-8,7,7-8. And then back off holiday into the stresses of everyday life and I’m back with disturbed sleep and wondering if I’ll ever recover from this.

On going thoughts… Thanks to slalomdude for posting that article. I’ve concluded that I have an imbalance in my central nervous system with a predominance towards the sympathetic nervous system (after months of thinking my HPA axis has a misalignment). Can I recover from this? I’ve absolutely no idea. It’s now been a year. I think the mental health team is organising a mindfulness meditation course for me. I googled about how to fix such an imbalance and again sleep and lots of it is the only way to do it naturally. It’s a bit difficult when the thing itself causes you disturbed sleep. I’ve been playing table tennis with my son (he’s 10 and just getting better and better at the game) and I think I’ll have to stop that.

I have often wondered why I’m better on holiday and I feel worse after some complex computer programming. Indeed, the holistic sites I’ve come across also mention that excessive cognition can keep you in an imbalanced state.

How do I feel? Sometimes I just feel weird (neuro-transmitters are probably imbalanced or depleted). Most of the time I’m chronically fatigued but able to do everyday tasks and activities. I know this stems from a lack of sleep and the sympathetic dominance is causing disturbed sleep which creates a vicious circle which is difficult to break out of.

The medical profession doesn’t recognise this condition at all and are very dismissive of it. And I do wonder if they did know anything about it whether they could do anything anyway.

Just thought I would bring this back to the top to get some updates from people that posted in the thread. How's everyone's health, back to training?
I have just passed 4 years since I was forced to stop training. Some small improvements in my health but still things are not right. I am flying from Florida to Colorado in a few weeks to consult with Dr San Milan. Hopeful to get some answers.

Took me about 4 years to recover. Finally started feeling normal a couple months back. Endurance is slowly coming along, but the nice thing is I'm not feeling that overwhelming blanket of fatigue anymore. I notice improvements, and have been able to stack some weeks of training on top of each other.

Really hope you can find something that can get you through it. Nothing more frustrating then that.

JT, really great to hear thinks are getting back to normal for you. Any suggestions or ideas that you think may of helped or was it a case of time heals. Were you able to exercise during any of that four year timeframe? How was you sleep during the time?

Well, it's now been three years for me – give or take a week. After two years I almost recovered, I felt great and normal (as far as I can remember what normal feels like). I slept better than average and thought that it wouldn't be long to full recovery. But alas things aren't quite that simple. The stresses and strains of every day life have a negative impact and I so my hopes of a recovery faded away.


After three years I feel much better, sleep is disturbed when I exercise too much or I get stressed. Examples of which can be: when I overdo it at table tennis or run around in the garden with the kids too much; or, when I get too stressed i.e. when my mother died and when I had a week of heavy commuting to do for a work related training course.


But what the hell is going on with my body? I've read loads of pseudo scientific nonsense out there and also read some very good scientific stuff. But, I'm almost convinced it's mostly adrenal fatigue. Sometimes this is an overused phrase to indicate that someone is run down but when you over train the negative cortisol feedback loop becomes broken and the adrenals just pump out cortisol until they become so fatigued that it will take 1-2 years for them to recover (if you eat right!). Whilst they are recovering the entire system (the HPA axis) will try to compensate and it will regulate and change neuro-transmitters in an attempt to coordinate with the adrenals which results in you feeling very weird and fatigued and have disturbed sleep. Even when the adrenals do recover the brain still needs to find it's way back to a fully coordinated system which, I suppose, can take another 1-2 years – who knows!

slalomdude, Please do keep us posted on any feedback from your doctor's appointment.

Really it was like a switch flipped. I had all sorts of blood work done, saw different doctors, had a few health issues come up as well, was put on a few different meds. Blood levels early on showed very low T levels. Fell into the double digits which is crazy low.

Specialized docs didn't really know what was going on. And randomly the past few month I've felt back to "normal" just a few years older.

I was able to do some exercising but never what I would call training. Just could never get more then a few weeks together with even light intensity. Super frustrating. Sleep for the most part was always normal.

Apologies for dredging up an old post, but I've searched high and low for anyone with a situation like mine and this is truly the best discussion on the web about overtraining. To preface, I'm purely a cyclist, but I come in peace here in the triathlon forum. Now, my story..

I began training consistently in late 2014. I rode 5-6 days a week, at low to moderate intensity (with the occasional HIIT or all-out rides) but high volume for almost three years. I rode very consistently through the harsh winters, never took any extended breaks, and sometimes rarely took any days off at all for periods of time. In the latter half of 2017, I began training at very high intensity, all the while maintaining my volume. The results were astounding, and frankly I was shocked I could ride that hard, day after day and still feel recovered. That winter, I rode more than any winter previously, and went right back into my high intensity, high volume training before spring even sprang. This is where, looking back, it got sticky.

I began to notice myself struggling performance-wise, not recovering, or things I had typically had to eat/drink that all but previously guaranteed recovery not working. I'd take a day or two off, and be back at the peak fitness of my life for a few days or weeks. Then I'd struggle again, rest a couple days, and be superman again. In hindsight, I was likely teetering on that fine line between peak performance and the cliff. In early June, after what was (stupidly) by far the hardest week of training of my life, I crashed right in the middle of a ride...could barely make it home. Not wanting to stop, I spent a week at Z1 pace, felt rested, went hard again and immediately crashed. My HR was sky high, I had no power, no ability to push the pedals, and frankly felt like I had skipped eating for a month and then tried to exercise.

I still ignored the need to rest fully, taking two, three, four days off, attempting to ride again or several weeks. Early on, I still had some strength and endurance, suggesting I could have stopped what was happening had I only rested completely, but as time went on, even only riding very slow once/twice a week, it's stretched on and gotten worse. It's been a constant ebb and flow; some days I can ride a slow 40 miles, some days I can't make it 15. Some days my legs burn for no reason, some days they're fine. And there's no rhyme or reason (ie. a full week off with good rest and good eating does not equal improvement). But I haven't at any moment in these 7 months been even 50% of normal.

I have at no point had any illness, lacked motivation, lost my appetite, etc. My sleep has occasionally been a problem, but more than anything, I routinely sleep for 8-10 hours and awake feeling like I hadn't slept at all. My resting HR has been normal, but on the bike it's 15-20 beats high for any given effort, and my max HR, I found on one particularly stupid day shortly after the initial crash, rose from 193 to at least 205.

I have had my TSH (0.98), Thyroglobulin (normal), T4 (0.9), Thyroid Peroxdse (0.9), all basic metabolics (normal), Parathyroid hormone (44) and cortisol (21.3) all tested and within normal range, with the only personally concerning test being testosterone at 308 (normal range, but very low for a 34yo male).

At this point, I have shut it down completely. I still worry there's another underlying health cause, but this thread seems to have a lot of similar themes, giving me hope it's merely OTS (it sucks, but it beats having a disease). Does this seem fairly textbook? If so anyone been in a similar spot that can shine some light on how much complete rest this could take? I've already gained 15 lbs., so the sooner the better.