For the past few weeks I have been experiencing a lot of fatigue and sleepiness. The kind where you lay down to take a nap, then wake up three hours later. I can’t work out longer than 1.5 to 2 hours at a time, and i haven’t been able to put in more than 10 training hours a week. It’s not workout fatigue, it’s different. This is so frustrating. I have a big race coming up and haven’t been able to do jack for it.
I’m a vegetarian. Could my diet be having this much of an impact?
Are you getting enough sleep at night? For the longest time I was only getting about 5-6 hours on average. Two weeks ago, I have been religious about getting a solid 7 hours sleep. That extra hour has made a world of difference in my training. I can’t comment on nutrition because I’m still trying to figure that one out myself! Hope this helped…
I go veggy every once in a while and my energy goes way down. the only way i’ve found to keep up is to eat 5-6 times a day.
Snackattack, that’s a tough one to answer, based on the info you’ve provided. As you probably know, there are many factors that play into that whole fatigue factor (e.g., diet, nutrients, hydration, sleep, overtraining). As far as beign a vegetarian, that shouldn’t necessarily effect your energy levels, heck some of the great triathletes of all time were veggies. Training a lot of hours, I think with any diet, if you’re lacking certain things it can lead to fatigue and underperformance. If I were you I’d do the following Do some research on required calories, carbs, fat, protein for someone as active as you are. I’d also try to dial in on zinc and some other nutrient type things. I believe Low zinc levels can lead to fatigue. Monitor you diet and see if you’re getting what you need. Are you overtraining?? You may want to invest in HR monitor and measure the intensity of your workouts. Before I got mine, I’m pretty sure most of my workouts were too intense. Are you getting enough sleep??? Everyone seems to operate on different levels of sleep, but if I get 6 or less, I struggle Sometimes that’s the reality of doing what we do (being tired) I often times I find that if I’m tired going into a workout, after about 10 minutes I start to feel alot better. The first 10 - 15 minutes can suck, but once I get past that time, I’m good.
Hope this wasn’t all too obvious to you.
I’ve been getting 8-10 hours a night since this started. Before this I was a 6-7 hour person for pretty much my entire life (except weekends before I took up triathlon…).
Zinc is definitely something to look into. I’m thinking about get bloodwork if I can convince the HMO doc that I need more than my iron level checked… I really want to work with a nutritionist, but am not sure how to go about finding one.
I do have a HRM and do mostly aerobic work with some higher intensity work thrown in a few times a week. You’re right, it’s the best tool to keep the urge to go hard in check. I personally don’t think my weekly training hours are that much, but I don’t really have anything to compare it to. I also don’t have a really hard time recovering from workouts as far as soreness and the like. The frustrating thing has been feeling recovered, getting enough sleep, then hitting the wall after an hour of working out.
I recently read a great book called “Vegetarian Nutrition for Endurance Athletes” or something like that, written by a triathlete. I’d really recommend it for veggie people.
Your post kind of sums up my frustration–there are all these different factors, what the hell is it?
Over trained?
HHHHHMMMMM!!!
Maybe it is time for a break?
You might consider getting tested for Epstein-Barr. I had the same symtoms several years ago. I didn’t listen to my body soon enough and it turned into CFS. One month I was training hard and having fun, burning the candle at both ends and then I started to feel like you described but didn’t let back. Then it hit me hard, and I mean hard; I was one notch from bedridden for several months. It really really sucked.
Obviously I can’t diagnose what is wrong but if it is CFS it won’t be easy… Take it for what it is worth… My advice: get checked, rest, do other sports, hang out, think about other things, relax, don’t feel guilty, don’t feel like triathlon is your job… I’ll tell you though, after a hiatus of over 5 years I am having a blast with the sport again and feel great. Getting through that was one of the hardest challenges of my life.