One for the medical types, recently I have been suffering from extreme exhaustion and lethargy, to the point where some days i’m barely functioning, in addition, when i lay down at night my heart beats so strongly it is like it is trying to escape my chest.

Bit of background, 41 years of age and of rugby lad build. In 2015 i got the fittest i’d been since my 20’s doing events raising money for Diabetes charities, culminating in riding 310 miles from Newcastle to London and riding 200 miles plus a number of times. Never the quickest, but had a big “diesel engine”.

I then decided coming into 2016 that i would commute to work by bike to save some needed money. So I was regularly riding between 36-56 miles a day and up to the November last year had clocked up 9000 miles and was looking forward to carrying that new found fitness in to 2017 and got a place to ride the French Divide.

As winter set in, i found i had completely lost motivation, i was struggling to hold 12mph on the bike whereas commute had been 16-18mph previously and was just falling asleep as soon as a i sat down of an evening, not helped by having daughter with T1 and often getting up to her a couple of times in the night.

I know that my issue is that i simply did too much with little rest and recovery in between, but since November i barely looked at bike, rode 8 times in 6 months and at Dirty Reiver and Gravel Dash, i was probably one of the slowest there and am now paying for it as i can barely stay awake!

Been to doctors, blood pressure good, heart rate 59bpm at rest, they have taken bloods 3 weeks ago, but i don’t think they found anything as not heard back?

Any one experienced this, how long it should take to recover from as it has been months, and whether i should be exercising or not? Part of thinks i should lay off all together but i miss riding my bike, and my mood is worse if i dont?

Any help, even if it is “you completely overdid it you plonker” appreciated…

So you did loads, got over trained, sat on your arse for 6 months and did two events/races with no prep? All while not getting decent sleep.

And you’re in your 40’s.

It’ll take months to get over it. And looking after yourself (diet, sleep, rest, proper training, not just smashing it, and so on).

Ring the doctors to get the bloods results, might even be worth sitting down to see where you are in range, as opposed to “yeah, thats ok” when you are only one point off absolute bear minimum.

IANAD, but:

“you completely overdid it you plonker”

Not quite what you want to hear, but there’s examples of people that have taken a year or more to recover from extreme cases of over-training.
As for doing Dirty Reiver when you are already screwed

“you completely overdid it you plonker”

Advice: Continue pestering your GP for any tests that can be done, and limit your rides to short (1hr max) zone 1 bimbles 2-3 times a week. You’ll know when you are ready to start riding properly again as you’ll stop feeling gubbed and actually feel motivated to ride.

Did loads – Sounds like training fatigue. You need to structure your training. It must include periods for your body to adapt, recover and train again.

Active recovery weeks, come down to half at least what you do normally. The next week you feel like a new man.

Good diet and rest are more important than lots of miles. They tend to be junk miles. Structure your training, include shorter hill rep sessions, intervals, sweet spot sessions and longer rides at lower pace.

Training doesn’t mean destroying or smashing yourself.

I don’t think you can suddenly overtrain by accident. Going from average of 16-18mph to 12mph which is really pedestrian, that’s not right. Back to the GP for you. Set your case out.

I am at a stage where i want to ride my bike, but when i do there is absolutely nothing there.

With regards to the two events, it was more about my sanity, i live in an area where there is little proper mountain biking and i wanted to catch up with friends i’d not seen for a year, i realise now it was to my detriment physically, but felt good to get away for my sanity

I don’t think you can suddenly overtrain by accident

Doesn’t work like that.
You start off feeling tired, but your performances aren’t suffering.
Then performances start to slide a little, but you man up and ignore it, maybe even try to do ‘extra’ to get back to where you were.
Before you know it you are smashing yourself every ride to hit Xmph ave because you know you ‘can’, it feels hard, but your HRM is telling you you are slacking.
Keep persisting with it a little longer and lo and behold you have totally F*’d yourself up.

And its not always just from training volume/intensity, other factors in life can make it about under-recovery due to poor sleep, nutrition etc.

I am at a stage where i want to ride my bike

That sounds pretty promising at least. Just need to keep the intensity down, and eventually the legs feel fresh again. Once there, you can start building up gradually again.

Doesn’t work like that.
You start off feeling tired, but your performances aren’t suffering.
Then performances start to slide a little, but you man up and ignore it, maybe even try to do ‘extra’ to get back to where you were.
Before you know it you are smashing yourself every ride to hit Xmph ave because you know you ‘can’, it feels hard, but your HRM is telling you you are slacking.
Keep persisting with it a little longer and lo and behold you have totally F*’d yourself up.

Nail on the head there, i started the long commutes into work in November 2015, for exercise and to save some cash, so first 5 months were in rain and dark, so by the time i was 6-7 months into the year, it was coming into summer, mood was great, i was fitting the “fancy road jerseys i’d bought but could never fit”, going to the odd event and doing well etc, i really started to slip about 9-10 months in, by that time it was my stubbornness, wanting to have done it for a year and 10000 miles that kept me riding. Only when i became a shell did i knock it on the head.

So I was regularly riding between 36-56 miles a day and up to the November last year had clocked up 9000 miles

I used to do that. Haven’t ridden a bike (other than to the shops) for about 5 years.

There are likely several things going on but one thing you do owe yourself is to make sure there isn’t anything more serious underlying. Chase up the blood tests and hassle for anything that is not right/close to not being right.

On the heartbeat front, it’s likely that it’s just a function of you being so exhausted. Also, palpitations (which come in many forms, including a strong sensation of your heartbeat) are usually just an awareness of your heartbeat more than anything else. That said, you’d be as well to ensure there’s nothing odd going on there – an ECG might be wise to check that your heartbeat is otherwise normal. Top tip: get a cardiologist to do this and get the cardiologist to read the result.

We live in a weird world: it’s increasingly sedentary but, when it comes to exercise, we’re encouraged more and more to take on extreme levels. Contrary to popular belief, exercise isn’t always good for us…!!

Oh – are you drinking more coffee to try and give yourself some energy?

I think a lot of my trouble, is being a big lad, i always went to XC rides or 30-40 road rides and struggled to hang on especially with a lot of climbing, but when the event went to 12 hours plus or for 200 miles, i was good at eating on the bike and good at stopping for just a few minutes at stops, so would often do OK in the grand scheme of things

Plus years of working abroad, i like travel, backpacking, etc, so the thought of that “one big ride or trip” has always been something i wanted to do

not helped by having daughter with T1 and often getting up to her a couple of times in the night.

T1 as in type I diabetes?

Also, how is your job and are you still continuously having disturbed sleep? When I feel the way that you describe it is because I am lacking sleep, either through work stress or doing shift work or similar.

molgrips – Member
Oh – are you drinking more coffee to try and give yourself some energy?

I was, almost on a drip, but stopped a few weeks ago to see if that wasn’t helping, felt rough a bit, but not really helped in grand scheme of things, still feel very lethargic, the mind is there and the will to do things, the body just can’t follow!

1 as in type I diabetes?

Also, how is your job and are you still continuously having disturbed sleep? When I feel the way that you describe it is because I am lacking sleep, either through work stress or doing shift work or similar.

Yep, T1 diabetes, she is more stable now, the issue at first was her diagnosis, then changing from injections to an insulin pump, then adding a CGM to the routine, meant that we had many disturbed nights. Part of my problem now is, i don’t have disturbed sleep, i have the sleep of the dead, 40 years of being able to happily get up at 5.30-6am, now i really don’t want to get out of bed, which i hate as weekends were getting out early for a few hours on bike and it being the “best part of the day”

have you had a ECG? my AF problem started like you explain. had a fantastic week away offroad touring in Scotland. was pretty fit for me then.
came home and a couple of days later, I was fubar.

have you had a ECG? my AF problem started like you explain. had a fantastic week away offroad touring in Scotland. was pretty fit for me then.
came home and a couple of days later, I was fubar.

I did back in October last year, was just told that i had a “strong heart beat, but pattern was regular” but this was just done by Practise Nurse though, maybe i should press for hospital appointment?

worth a shot mate. I went from being fit and strong, to knackered overnight.
if it was overtraining it would not show so quickly.

but this was just done by Practise Nurse though, maybe i should press for hospital appointment?

Definitely.

From direct experience, an ECG will show all sorts of things that only a really experienced eye can spot.

Press your GP for a referral.

If all turns up blank with the docs, consider adrenal fatigue. Your GP probably won’t be much help on that front though.

Look for a qualified nutritionist.

[/quote]If all turns up blank with the docs, consider adrenal fatigue.

Just read the link below quickly, i don’t want to “google diagnose”, but that seems to be to me to a tee at the moment, except the want for salty foods (except pork scratchings!)

7 Common Adrenal Fatigue Symptoms (And How To Treat Them!)

I had a similar experience in my 20s and still get the odd relapse type thing. The feeling of your heart at night is quite alarming isn’t it. I ended up with ectopic beats too and on ECG but they do it for so little time they didn’t pick up anything irregular. I think the sleep is the biggest contributor to the booming heart beat at night, you’ve done right to cut out the caffeine, I was told to stop all stimulants.

(except pork scratchings!)

Just use it as an excuse with the Mrs 😆

Thanks all.. few things to consider

Look for a qualified nutritionist.

Hey guess what, I’ve just decided that I’m a qualified nutritionist and so is my dog. Let me know if you need an appointment 😉

About the ECG, my GP did a 24 hour test for me last week, a bit awkward to sleep in, but no hassle otherwise. Getting the results tomorrow, but my blood pressure was through the roof, which runs in my family, but we reckon mostly down to stress, don’t discount it, it can mess you up in unexpected ways.

I was pretty much the same. Went for loads of tests. Eventually the Doc looked at my build and sent me to the sleep clinic. Diagnosed with sleep apnea, I woke up 42 times an hour through the night on average. Face mask prescribed (cpap) and now as good as new.

Hey guess what, I’ve just decided that I’m a qualified nutritionist and so is my dog. Let me know if you need an appointment

Your dog you say? I can pay in Bonios?

Actually, you’ve got a point. There are a lot of bad nutritionists. The good ones are highly skilled at seeing things GP’s don’t and can’t.

Just occurred to me that Bonios might be where I’m going wrong?