Some others have touched on recovery, but it’s mostly been danced around: what exactly have you been doing for recovery?
You said you had built up to seven days a week, and that’s all well and good (my body always responded best at 6 and 7 days running… until it didn’t) but you need some dedicated recovery in there at some point. If not full recovery days where you don’t run, then some short and super slow recovery runs in between days of hard effort.
Were you taking any cut-back weeks, where you dial back the volume and almost all intensity to give yourself time to recover? Before I started doing that, I had put myself into a similar position as you.
Everyone responds to training in different ways, you just need to find what works best for you. Lots of great advice on here - if I hadn’t researched, read, and tested different approaches, I would have burnt out years ago. Good luck!
Tachycardia and sympathetic overreaching are his symptoms. More carbs is the wrong direction (except to help sleep). Warm up gradually and ensure a low-stress state for each workout. Start with normal blood glucose, don’t pre-fuel. Heart rate graphs should not be spiky and first 15mins should be relaxing. Minimise glycolysis and you minimise sympathetic stress.
Thank you all for the feedback, you dont know how much I appreciate it! Really means the world that you all share some insightful knowledge I can add to my life.
Regarding the carbs, I dont know if I actually eat enough of carbs, my partner and I normally share around 3-400 grams of pasta for dinner, and then I eat some bread, mysli etc throughout the day.
I would say I get around 200-250 grams of carbs Per day, is that too low?
That sounds like a good starting point but I highly recommend trying to take in some carbs during your bigger workouts as well. I think you might notice a huge difference in how you feel (also taking carbs in during workout means your body is more likely to use them than store them as fat)
you are focused on the wrong macro-nutrient bud, this ain’t body-building.
There’s this Canadian triathlete that lives in the US now, he has a great youtube channel about how to do triathlon training and racing perfectly. Just follow him and do everything he does and you’ll be fine.
I suspect you’ve ramped up to 10-14 hrs too fast. Being only 1.5 yrs into endurance sports, that’s a big volume load to work up to very quickly.
You should cut back to 7-8 until you feel like it’s sustainable. Then after that you have to get a trusted plan that will slowly increment your volume over months like 80/20 plans on Traininpeaks. That way you’re not just digging yourself into a hole over and over again by ramping too fast.
I found the volume increases from 10 to 15 hrs per week quite challenging for months, before I acclimated to them. 15 hrs+ for me never feels easy, but I’m not dead or underperforming either. 80/20 plans have 3rd week reduced volume weeks which also help with recovery.
Okay everyone, so I have now done 2 days with 500 grams of CHO per day. With 2x3 hour days in the weekend. Come monday and I feel amazing! No more weird super hard HR spikes when chilling in the bed, my joints are not aching anymore and I can actually get that strength workout done after my easy evening sessions.
My only issue is how crazy hard it is to eat all of these carbs, I normally am able to eat like crazy, but this is hard.
Any suggestions from anyone how to plan the meals optimally, any max amount of carbs per meal?
When should I have the biggest meals etc?
Glad that the carbs are making you feel better. It feels like magic when you start doing high carb doesn’t it? A trick to getting extra carbs in is to take them in liquid/gel form during the workout. Added benefit is it will go straight to your muscles as glycogen.
Another trick that has worked for me is adding carb to my post-workout protein shake. Sometimes an extra banana or some sugar. I know it’s healthier to eat whole carbs and I do that as much as possible but 500g of unprocessed carbs is a nightmare in terms of volume lol. For that reason, I’ll mix in a bowl of cereal or a couple of tortillas with pb&j to get me there.
The podcast “That Triathlon Show” has a number of good episodes on both general and sports nutrition. The interview with James Moran, of Uno X cycling, I thought was particularly good. There is another good recent one with Monique Ryan. James Moran | EP#404
Moran talked about using smoothies and fruit juices in daily nutrition (not during workouts) to help boost daily carb and vitamin/mineral intake when necessary, but also avoid too much fiber or bulk caused by high food volume. Also adding sweetener to say an grain or rice dish or dessert. Rice pudding or rice crispy treats for example. I personally found those recommendations quite helpful. Ryan talked about also watching macros during meals: 4 oz of chicken or steak gets you plenty of protein, where 8oz takes up space for carbs and is potentially too much protein in total. Same goes for fatty meats, sauces, etc.
I also have a spreadsheet with different sheets for different types of workout days that includes by estimated basal caloric expenditure, an average expenditure of different length sessions (30’ run, 60’ run, etc.) and how many calories are in my average breakfast smoothie and lunch (they are usually consistent throughout the work week). This helps my keep track on daily needs, meal/snack planning, and how many carbs during the session. It really helps avoid under fueling on work days where I have a long morning swim before work coupled with 90’-120’ session after work. In these types of situations it can be easy to end up with a massive calorie deficit heading into dinner if you don’t plan for it.
And then yes, eat during sessions of any length, both to fuel the session, but also to keep up with daily carbs as needed.
I might also suggest Gordo Byrn’s YouTube channel Endurance Essentials (and Substack) for ideas on adapting to higher volume training as an age grouper and many other topics.
Reading thru all that I realise I paid almost zero attention to fuelling when I was doing longer stuff other than having gels during HIMs or long rides.
Don’t really race any more just do 3-6hrs/week of consistent swim/cycle/strength and still pay zero attention to protein/carb intake. Just try to eat fairly healthy stuff…..except prob too much alcohol.
My youngest just showed me stuff on my Garmin and said my sleep was crap and body battery at 61 also crap I think I’ve just adapted over many decades to operating at ‘pretty crap’. And yet my VO2 Max at 54 is apparently ‘superior’ at age 62.
Damn I could have gone pro if only I’d known all this stuff
I think I’ve just adapted over many decades to operating at ‘pretty crap’. And yet my VO2 Max at 54 is apparently ‘superior’ at age 62.