I know not sleeping properly is a symptom of over training. Does anyone know how quickly this appears? I never sleep well anyway, but having recently over trained, and then backed off my training, I slept a bit better. Now I’m putting in more effort, I’m not sleeping properly again. I don’t know whether this is a first symptom of over doing it again, or if its just time of the year i.e being light all the time, birds chirping when I’m trying to sleep etc! I don’t feel like I’ve over trained, but then I didn’t last time until I had symptoms that impacted on my training.

when do you train? If its in the evening you will struggle to sleep. Try and fit it in early, the mornings the best really

I never ever train and sleep blissfully :o)

It’s totally dependant on the person. If it’s the only symptom, and you feel like you are ok, then I wouldn’t worry too much, just keep a close eye on things (resting heart rate etc)

But it may be worth asking the people closest to you if you are likely to be overtraining….in my experience the people closest to me know well well before I do!

if i have a good ride in the evening i cant sleep for hours sometimes.
i’ll be buzzing

Warton, I do both – I do weights in the morning, and riding/running/spinning in the early evening during the week. At weekends i ride mid morning – mid afternoon. I struggle to train (cv wise) in the morning as I don’t have the energy.

SFB, you never have anything wrong with you, must be the luckiest person out there 🙂

LGB, Not sleeping properly is my only symptom at the moment, and I don’t even know if it is related to training – noisey neighbours/birds etc don’t help so it could be that. I’m just worried about over doing it again! Trouble with asking other people, is that I don’t listen to what they say – I’m stubborn and won’t accept it until it hits me badly :-s hohum! 🙂

Poor sleep patterns can be a symptom of overtraining, elevated resting heart rate is also a big indicator, along with feeling f****** all the time and even depressed ( hence why monitoring resting heart rate is important). The important thing is to sleep and eat well while you are training because if you aren’t sleeping well and training you will struggle overtraing or not. You need to get into a pattern with your training and sleep, so your body gets used to it.This means have a 4 week plan with recovery periods not loads for week or 2 then F**** all, this is not effective and doesn’t do your body good.

I never ever train and sleep blissfully :o)

as i work 13hr shifts which finish at 8.30pm i tend to do a lot of hard rides home(usually 1-1.5hrs long) at a high pace-and it really affected my sleeping, sometimes i would wake up in early hours with tingly legs etc and just toss and turn. Am not the best sleeper in the world so i frequently use sleeping meds to help, also i now chuck on some sexy dvt sock things when i get in and elevate my legs etc which has helped no end

Have a **** when you get in. Will help with recovery and sleep.

(Edit: Yeah, sex will work too, but partners generally don’t like being woken up when you get back late from a ride to “help with your training regime”.)

Alcohol robs you of the REM you need during sleep, in case you’re enjoying a glass of wine, post ride.
Consider wearing ear plugs maybe?
Are your curtains lined or paper thin? ie: are you getting to sleep in a dark room? Try a warm chocolate milk drink before bed as that’s often helpful. Stay off the high caffine suppliments inc’ coffee. Tea I find AOK. Read a chaper in a novel at bedtime. Just some ideas.
One by-product of sex is sleep (for males – not for females) . Being aware of not sleeping usually makes the situation worse!
Hope these help in some way.

Eat oily fish, have plenty of sex, and ride when you want to, not because you feel you ought to.

May not work for everyone, but it’s worth a try………. 😉

PS: I don’t sleep that well after a winter night ride, when I close my eyes, I see trees wizzing past!

When I am doing weights I always do CV exercise first (cycling / running) then weights after.

Especially if you are doing “x number of reps to failure” kind of lifting. Then going for a long ride at the end of day is just going to fry those muscles even more and it will be hard to measure progress against cycling after a weights workout as you will tired from the morning, thus your RPE against a certain HR zone will seem higher than usual.

I would do the cycling in the morning, then weights in the evening.

SFB, you never have anything wrong with you, must be the luckiest person out there

odd, because I don’t deserve it :o)

dirtygirlonabike, training twice in a day, unless you’re an elite athlete, is overtraining.

Im the opposite of most folk here. For example was out training last night, quite a fast oad ride, got home, had some food, then fell straight to sleep. Never usually have trouble sleeping after biking.

How often do you actually train. Is it every night? Also try to vary your training, not just the same old routine.

Normally I don’t have a problem sleeping. However, after a night ride, I just can’t get off to sleep and often wander down for a cup of tea at 2am! Wouldn’t be an issue apart from the alarm buzzing at 5.45am 🙁

I haven’t slept that well for the last 2 or 3 years (since my little boy was born) and find that I can only sustain approx 2 weeks or exercise before I start to feel really fatigued.

However, before reading this thread wasn’t aware of the link between poor sleep and exercise. Could it be that the exercise is making me sleep less well and thus making me tired rather than feeling tired after too much exercise as I do not sleep well.

Who knows.

Training every day? This is known to be in-effective. Rest days are necessary to allow for adaptation by the muscles to the increased exercise. Every other day is most effective, check out cycling fitness in WH Smith for more info.

However, after a night ride, I just can’t get off to sleep and often wander down for a cup of tea at 2am!

that’s my normal bedtime Granville :o)

So I’ve noticed from your posts Simon 🙂

I’d say that it’s best to train 5 days a week, two days off. Riding a trail counts as training. It’s best to alternate between cycling, other cardio, and resistance work.

I wear earplugs when its really noisy, but don’t like wearing them. Got blackout curtains – in face the room is so dark I can’t see my hand! Don’t drink much and rarely have coffee after 3pm.

I don’t train every night – usually Tuesday, sometimes Wednesday, Thursday, Sat and Sun. My training is varied – weights, running, mtb’ing and road riding. HR is fine and I’m feeling fine, loads of power, feeling strong etc – but then my hr fine was last time until I lost all leg power and felt rubbish. I was out for 4 hours yesterday, really enjoyed it, but couldn’t sleep without taking (herbal) sleeping pills. I just didn’t seem to be tired – but I should have been after the ride, and the fact that I didn’t sleep well that night before either. Someone told me that not sleeping properly is a very early symptom of over training – but I guess there’s no way of finding out whether I’m not sleeping because of the weather/work/other stuff or over training aside from cutting back on the exercise. Maybe I’m just being paranoid after over training a few months back and I don’t want to go through that again.

im not sleeping well just now but for me its down to heat ! im lying awake and boiling – window open and covers consisting of just a single sheet …

RHR is at normal for me.

But i have been riding hard from 6-10 3 outa 5 nights this week which may contribute – never normally an issue for me though usually sleep sound after a ride !

‘Worrying’ about not sleeping might be making you not sleep perhaps? Just a thought