So started my first proper MTB race of the season at the weekend. It was a marathon of 90km with about 3000m of climbing. It is an area I ride in often and know all the trails well. So after the start we came to the first major climb and I couldn’t get my HR over 150bpm and it felt like I had a limiter on my ‘engine’. There was just nothing there and I quickly went backwards through the field. In the end I decided to jack it in after the halfway point as it was just too depressing not being able to ride up stuff at a speed I am usually capable of. Is this a clear case of over training? I have been doing a lot recently but apart from having this feeling a few weeks ago have felt generally fine. If so what is the best course of action? Complete rest ie no riding at all or gentle pootles? Then how long should I be looking at resting? Is one week enough and how can I tell if I have recovered enough? I usually train around 12-15 hours a week and have done for a number of years.

I doubt you’re over trained, you’re probably just a bit tired

First proper race ever, or just this year?
Bare in mind that in a race scenario it’s easy to get carried away and go too hard too early and mess with your system. It’s also hard to ride trails at the same speed/effort that yo would while training/just riding as your body is in an entirely different place during a race.

Marathon race climbs on local trails can be pretty soul destroying imo.. mainly because your ability to deliver the effort you expect to is compromised because of the higher output before reaching that point.

Quitting is for only if something hurts 😉

Tired / dehydrated?

3 replies in and no one has suggested the OP has AIDS. This place is going downhill.

A virus? I had exactly this on the etape Cymru a couple of years ago- as soon as it went uphill I went backwards. Was fine after a week though.

You’re not over trained, you’re under recovered…

http://breakingmuscle.com/mobility-recovery/repeat-after-me-there-is-no-such-thing-as-overtraining

12-15 hours is a fair bit of training if you have a full time job, family life and other commitments. Do you do 12-15 every week or have an easier week built in? How intense are those hours? Could be tiredness of training and life, could be a virus.

I have found that a cycle of 3 weeks training, 1 week rest works for me. It also gives me a week to fit in extra diy, family time etc.

Just to clarify. This was my first MTB race this year but I have already done some road and CX events this year. I have raced in this particular race a few times even getting myself on the podium three years ago in my age group (masters). I am quite a seasoned racer and know how hard I can push things in a race situation. But like I said even if I had wanted to go all out there was just nothing there in the tank.

Yes I do try and build in a rest week but this year I have been doing more work on trying to improve my power as I had a test in March and it was suggested that my power could be better and the trainer gave me some bike excerises to try.

I couldn’t get my HR over 150bpm

your tired, classic symptom

on long multi day stuff I see my max HR fall off every day. Means you didn’t taper and rest enough before the race

I find being at my peak for a race can be difficult balance between too much rest and not enough. If in doubt I tend to err on the side of more rest.

If your having a problem about easing off and resting – then drop the guilt bit. We all feel that when we don’t train

My wife suffered from over training a lot of years ago. She was rowing and trialing for GB. First symptoms from what I remember was that her training performances started going down. That makes the altelete train more… Which is of course the wrong thing to do. So she trained more. Eventually she was exhausted all the time and went to see the GB doc who diagognosed Over training syndrome. I think it’s called something else now. She hasn’t rowed since and for years if she tried training would get ill. She is currently doing the ‘couch to 5k’ which is going well. From what you say I would think that maybe you did too much training leading up to the race? Ideally you should taper your training down as the race approaches. Take in to account your working and family life too. Or maybe as others have suggested you have a virus.

From what you have told us you were either going into the event exhausted, or starting out on already low carbohydrate stores.

If you really have overtraining you’ll most likely be showing other symptoms. Chronic fatigue, unexplained muscle aches, grumpy, apathy – even towards things you usually like to do.

If you are showing any of those symptoms in addition to poor form then i’d be taking a full week off, then only short easy spins until you feel good both in general and on the bike.

I rarely see over 150 now, I used to see high 180’s when I was racing, but I was 59 last week and I’ve been on pills for high blood pressure for 5 years or more. 🙁

My wife had an almost a carbon copy of gavinpearce’s ^ situation. Went from riding at worlds mtb / 2nd in NPS to out the back of the field at start of next season.

It is basically a snowball of training, life, work, health and everything else. Finished off by pounding yourself into the floor doing intense speed work that you think must be “missing”….

We had a couple of visits to Dr Richard Budgett at UK Olympic Medical Centre. He’d published a few good papers on the subject so try and find these and more recent info if you are worried. He commented at the time that XC MTB seemed to be particularly good at burning people out.

15 hours a week around a life is quite a lot. A bit of rest and a good balanced diet won’t do your performance any harm whilst you see how it pans out. Being overtrained isn’t just a bit tired or a few duff races – it is dropping off a cliff edge and takes years to recover from.

Mick r
Yes that was the doc my wife saw. I couldn’t remember his name.

Hi Gavin. (slight hijack but maybe useful for the op) Dr Budgett talked a lot of sense and looking back his advice was helpful and accurate (but probably not what an aspiring athlete wanted to hear). Hope things are getting better for your wife – mine got back to a bit of elite racing after a few years but never to the same standard. After that it was the enforced “break” of having kids that probably did most of the final repair work. Kids are racing a bit now which has opened a fun opportunity for her to play at racing again.

When did you last have a rest week?

If you’ve merely had a tough training block then a week off should be enough

If you’ve trained without proper resting for ages then longer.

Training Peaks PMC and fitness is to blame for a lot of overtraining IMHO.

Illness, possibly. I’ve formed the (unsubstantiated) opinion over the years that one can get the odd virus or whatever without having a sniffly nose or sore throat etc. And you don’t notice until you try and ride hard, at which point you discover you can’t.

Rest works wonders. Don’t worry too much about losing fitness over a fortnight. I’ve had some of my best events after two weeks off the bike completely, coming back well rested, well fed and absolutely raring to go.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I still have the urge to get on my bike so I suppose it is just a case of fatigue. I don’t think it is a virus (even though two of my kids have been off school this week with high temperature and cough) as I usually get spots on my temples when I am going down with something. I am going to have an easy week this week and see how I feel on Sunday. One of my target races is in two weeks so I hope I am feeling better by then!