Looking to make use of all the knowledge and experience this forum can offer regarding overtraining syndrome.
I believe I am suffering from Overtraining Syndrome after several months of training and then needing to stop training due to exercise induced insomnia, which initially was only present after hard workouts, but now occurs after any exercise. I’ve also recently acquired dizziness, stomach disturbances, legs and arms feeling very, very heavy, and a heightened emotional state.
Visited my GP for blood work and the only findings were very low Vitamin D, for which I was prescribed a supplement, and low testosterone, which I understand is not highly unusual for a long time endurance athlete (I am a 40 YO male who has been training and racing consistently since my 20s). My Cortisol levels were also a bit high, but I had the blood work done around 9 am and understand that may correspond with a time when cortisol levels are higher in the blood. No lyme disease.
I stopped all significant training about one month ago except for the occasional easy 1 hr spin and walks. With the extra rest, I expected to feel better but now I can’t even manage easy spins or walks without triggering all of my symptoms.
For others who have struggled with overtraining:
have you found that the symptoms initially get worse once you stop training, such that even minor activity (2-3 mile walk) triggers a relapse?
have you cut out all physical activity, even walking, in order to recover?
appreciating everyone is different, what sort of timeline to recovery have you experienced and how did you decide when to add back exercise?
In addition to helping myself understand what’s happening, I hope this post is helpful for any others who may find themselves in a similar hole.
Overtraining has infinite variations, it seems, so just reporting my experiences.
Age 46, have competed/trained nearly continuously since about age 15. Had my most acute overtraining experiences as a collegiate rower. And have struggled since with lesser instances.
have you found that the symptoms initially get worse once you stop training, such that even minor activity (2-3 mile walk) triggers a relapse? 2) have you cut out all physical activity, even walking, in order to recover?
Some of the psychological symptoms were worse once I stopped. Because you get the double-whammy of being both overtrained and out-of-shape. You just feel worthless.
But in general, no. I started to get less irritable, less dizzy, less tired, more human within a week or two after stopping. Small things, like eating or sex start to be enjoyable again. And I generally tried to keep very, very light exercise going.
appreciating everyone is different, what sort of timeline to recovery have you experienced and how did you decide when to add back exercise?
The really bad time, I probably wasn’t fully “right” again for a good 2 years after I graduated out of collegiate crew. I kept digger deeper and deeper in college because I couldn’t let my team down.
Since then it really depends. I’m now really, really good at recognizing when I’m overreaching, and can back down quick. Just a few weeks to get back.
I try to never stop the rhythm of working out . If it’s a 10-minute walk instead of a 10-mile run, or a soft-pedal on a beach cruiser instead of a 3-hour group ride, I keep doing it. For me, that’s mostly psychological, though. I just have to. But it doesn’t seem to hurt.
No, I was not tested for mono. Will ask my GP. In general, fatigue isn’t an issue if I get reasonable sleep. My issues are more decreased performance plus the general CNS symptoms I mentioned.
Thank you for sharing your experience. It helps to know others out there have experienced similar issues. I’ve been surprised that despite the near elimination of all activity I am only symptom free on the days I do literally nothing. I thought walking was always low intensity enough to be okay, but I’m finding that’s not necessarily the case.
I’ve suffered similar symptoms in the past and still do to a certain extent. For years I had been to different doctors and tested everything but all seemed normal. At best I tried different strengths of pharmaceutical melatonin but I was still dealing with insomnia and always feeling tired.
I went to a nutritionist thinking maybe it’s diet related who in the end had me gut tested and my gut flora make up was terrible. Pushing so hard training for Ironman I think I was just gradually highlighting how bad it was and the symptoms gradually got worse. Turns out I had a parasite I had to get rid of and then repair the gut that has taken time. I had 0% e.coli when I am supposed to have about 70% and e.coli produces melatonin is my understanding.
Alas I am definitely a lot better than what I was but my point is by pushing the limits of training and unable to understand why I had such high levels of fatigue had me look beyond what the doctors were telling me as none of them suggested sending off a stool sample for analysis. If you can’t find anything else I recommend having your gut tested to at lease eliminate it as a cause.
I’ve dealt with this for a few years now. Over Training Syndrome is different for everyone, and recovery likely depends on how overtrained someone gets. I never really recovered from the first, and most severe, episode about 6 years ago. Still work out, and sometimes compete, but my former racing speed is just… gone.
Just had another bout of it ramping up for an xc ski race. Took about 10 full days off. Even housework or going up the stairs during that time felt like an interval session.
This last episode forced me to re- shape my mindset about how to deal with it. I need to treat it like a permanent injury/ illness to prevent another flare- up.
After a little deeper dive during an interweb search, I came across Alexandra Coates. Former ITU racer for Canada, now getting her PhD, specializing in overtraining. As of right now, she seems to have some of the more recent studies on overtraining among endurance athletes. It would be nice if someone could get her on the forum for a day or two.
Good luck with your recovery, & keep us updated on what helps you deal with it.
Thanks for sharing your story. During your first bout of OTS 6 years ago, how long did it take you to feel normal again? And when you say that you took 10 full days off, did you do any walking or are we talking full rest? I’m generally okay around the house, but any minor exertion triggers a bunch of nasty symptoms like heavy arms/legs, stomach distress, headache/dizziness, insomnia. I’ve been away from serious training now for a month with the exception of trying some easy rides with my wife and a few walks, all with mixed results, but generally bad outcomes. I will look into the research you mentioned.
I’ve flirted with overtraining over the last 5 years but I didn’t get too far into it until last year.
I had heart rate suppression (parasympathetic overtraining) for most of last summer and didn’t realize it because I’ve had it before. In those times I took 2 weeks very easy and was able to get back into it.
This time was different, after letting a hamstring injury heal in August I couldn’t get back to normal training. I wasn’t weak, I just had a hard time getting going from what seemed like no energy. Most of my easier runs I had a HR of about 110 instead of 130-140, I didn’t like to swim from a lack of energy. The only thing that felt near normal was riding my bike but that seemed to be at 80%.
I wound up taking off the last two weeks in September, all of October and November and then half of December. I started back with easy running/cycling and was able to get my HR up into the 140’s much easier than during the previous summer.
Causes: I started a lot of running in October/November of 2018 and carried it through February of 2019. In January 2019 I started riding/swimming a lot and carried it though to August with no breaks. In hindsight I should have taken some easy time in April and then in June. Instead I just kept digging myself into a hole.
Now after 4 months of training, I’m much stronger than I was during all of 2019.
Hmm… the first, most serious episode was a season- ender. Probably took 2 months off. Off each time means nothing. Full rest. Act like you broke your leg.
How long to feel normal again? Hindsight… never again. I should have taken more rest the first time. A few months over the span of decades isn’t that much time. Again, hindsight is 20/20. Sometimes it seems that there’s almost some sort of permanent alteration and my body overreacts to heavy training, going way off into a stress super- compensation and I can’t come back like before.
Each episode has me experiencing the insomnia, heavy limbs, & shortness of breath from just moving around the house. The fatigue feels like it’s on a deep, cellular level. I never have stomach issues. And as you’ll discover as you start to do some research, there is a big difference between over- reaching and overtraining. This is not a mechanical recovery aid situation.
Please don’t think I’m trying to tell you your tri/ endurance career is over. I wish I had been as intelligent as you and started seeking legitimate, science- based information after the first episode. You’re treating it like a serious injury, which should lead to a successful recovery.
Good insights. Thank you. I’m glad to hear that you are back to training and feeling strong!
In looking back at my own training, I didn’t take much of a break at the beginning of 2019, only 2 weeks, trained hard all year, and had some extra time without work in late fall that I used to keep the legs ticking over when I should have rested. We then had a temperate winter this year so I was doing more than I normally would in January, which is when my issues really began. At the beginning it was only harder workouts that suffered so I went through a time of backing off intensity a lot, then mileage and intensity, taking a mini-break in February, which alleviated all symptoms but a month later all had returned so I shut it down. What has been surprising is how much worse I feel now than when I was still training, but going easy. Hoping I will turn the corner with the insomnia soon as I know sleep is the biggest factor in recovering.
I appreciate your candor and for ending the post on a positive note. I never thought I was doing this much damage to myself.
Did you find any healthcare professionals to be helpful? Endocrinologist or neurologist?
My GP put me on prescription strength Vitamin D b/c my blood work showed I am really low. It was also suggested my issues could be anxiety related, which I disagree with, but would be willing to try something that might slow down my overstimulated nervous system - I’ve found I cannot tolerate caffeine at all right now.
How long did your insomnia take to resolve?
Hope your latest overtraining issue improves soon.
To me, overtraining is pretty common and normal. It’s not necessarly a bad thing, it’s just a sign that something in the athlete’s life need to be readjusted. Could be volume, intensity, nutrition, sleep, and obviously environmental factors leading to stress (which are probably the most important and impactful in the athlete’s life but we can hardly “measure” whats happening in the head).
I think there’s a psychological aspect to the situation of the OP. Feeling like not much has changed after 1 month of almost no training after 20y of regular training/racing is a very short period of time for the mind to readjust.
If you were really burnt out yeah it can really suck for a while and get worse. Shift your focus to something else which is not training, racing or slowtwitch.
The stories of people feeling terrible (leading to depression) kicking in after doing an ironman for example is so common.
Let’s just chill! The triathlon community can be intense
It’s a syndrome with a continuous spectrum, but I think your post is describing what would normally be called “overreaching.” Overreaching can be reversed relatively quickly.
Overtraining is when you’re just completely broken. Nothing functions properly. You can take two weeks off - eating and sleeping perfectly - and the next day you’re just as broken.
Your post is completely valid for recognizing something is going wrong in the “overreaching phase” so you don’t go completely off the cliff.
It gets a bit “jargonyâ€, but you’ll get a better understanding of why it’s hard to test & diagnose. After reading it, you may understand why you’re showing markers that would indicate “psychological anxiety.†Your CNS is overstimulated, for sure. It doesn’t necessarily mean a psychological dysfunction, though. OTS is a mysterious problem, so there’s no true way to know how/ what actually sent you over the edge.
I’m not going to tell you how long it took me to get back to 6-8 hours of healthy sleep, as it’ll make you more worried about not sleeping. Then you won’t sleep, because you’re stressed about not sleeping, and so the cycle goes…
Hang in there. The discipline you used to find your best physical self through training will be an advantage in finding resolution to this issue.
Thanks for correcting me that makes a lot of sense to me!
Then I’d also say that overreaching can lead to overtraining. At least I feel like it did for me. In 2015 during my first Ironman training I was so much into my triathlon bubble that I lost track how what it was like to have a healthy training. The fatigue levels that I had (from TSS/CTL etc) clearly shows that I was counterproductive in my training. I could never prove it thru blood work but I just remember that after my first IM i was like “ok so what now?” and felt completely burnt out and it took me much longer than just a month to get back on my feet and consider myself healthy.
