I’ve been racking up the miles this summer with long commutes and weekend rides. I’ve loved riding this summer and also the fitness gains I’ve seen has pushed me on. I’ve had the odd rest day most weeks and a few two and three day rest periods.

Problem is my legs are starting to feel heavy even with two days rest and I’ve had a couple of sore throats. I know I need more rest but question is how long and when do you know you are ready to go again. Classic amateur not wanting to lose fitness gains.

Any thoughts most welcome.

Do you use a foam roller and stretch? Or do you ever get a sports massage? Knots develop in the muscles from extended periods of training. Rolling on your legs with a roller at least three times a week helps to ease them and should take some of the heaviness out. But you might need to get some needling done if the knots are bad, don’t know a huge amount about it but my understanding is that the damaged/stressed muscle tends to clump together instead of being in line like smooth fibres. Needling will help a lot but make sure you find someone experienced to do it. I get it done every 2-3 months or the week after a hard training period. Helps a lot.

I stretch a little but a bit of a token gesture really. I don’t use a foam roller but that makes sense, I’ll look into that.

Massage sounds good and makes sense.

Thanks for your input.

I also support the use dog a foam roller and sports massage. Regarding overtraining, that’s a very hard thing to diagnose. I’m am pretty sure i overtrained two years ago. Did a fair amount of riding, with some significant volume of mid to high intensity efforts with little recovery time. I started to feel tired, not ‘normal’ tired, but seriously struggling to get out of bed, falling asleep at 8pm, etc. On the bike i struggled to push out over 200w. Took four weeks off and started to ride again and started to get tired again. Eventually i was off the bike for 3 months. It was a very unpleasant experience. Little more that i can say but listen to your body and don’t be scared to rest. It is very common for pros and amateurs to take a month off at tje end of the season, personally i don’t like that, instead i have a few weeks alternating between riding and day off.
hope that helps.

Heres a good video on rolling [video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFnazr1DCcM[/video]

Wow three months off. That worries me!

A good way to train is 3 to 1 ratio. 3 weeks hard building in intensity, 1 week easy. Your body gets time to build and strengthen in the fourth week with light exercise. Then start again. Also means you can plan to do normal life stuff in that week. Works for me.

Try listening to this.
http://audioboo.fm/boos/2362626-coach-gordy-paulson-and-how-to-recognize-and-recover-from-overtraining
http://audioboo.fm/boos/2373607-coach-gordy-paulson-and-how-to-recognize-and-recover-from-overtraining-part-two-of-two

Tried the massage method, legs feel so much better today 😉

Sports massge, stretching and good nutrition are undoubtedly helpful if you’re increasing intensity/duration of exercise but “riding more” and “training” are not the same – sounds like you need to structure your riding to include rest periods and recovery rides rather than just do more miles.

I never got on with foam rollers but “the stick” is very good.

Also worth remembering, you don’t get fitter/faster by training, you get fitter/faster by resting.

Are you taking your RHR or HR when riding – usually good indicators of over training. Also PE pretty reliable too i.e it feels harder than normal at same HR/power.
As for rest and knowing when to return, most people return to quickly – take a few more days then you think you need, or at the very most, z1 for an hour max for a few days before starting back properly again.
Heavy legs sounds like under recovered more than over trained, massage, foam roller and diet make a big difference if your riding lots (i train 5/6 days a week, foam roller every day, massage every 2 weeks, i eat tons and protein / recovery shake after every session). Are you eating enough to fuel your rides and recovery? Elevating your legs for 30mins after riding helps as does epsom salt bath.

Also worth remembering, you don’t get fitter/faster by training, you get fitter/faster by resting.

Not quite true, its a combination of both.

But I’m similar to the OP as I’ve been doing a lot of riding since March, two weeks off the bike mid July was great though and I felt very fit when I got back on it though. Did a lot of miles in a short space of time during August though and my legs are suffering this week, my left calf muscle is very tight.

Sport massage is worth investigating.

I never get over trained I tend to crash and hurt myself so have to take time off 🙂

i rode much more than usual in June/July but did very little in August due to Holidays. Last couple of ride I’ve felt really strong, resting really seems to help.

wasnt it someone who said
“if you think your tired from overtraining, you didnt train hard enough if the first place, and if your not tired, then you need to do more until you are.”

actually feeling the same as the OP, been a great summer of riding and running and touring on the bike as a holiday, so not much rest, but the past 2 weeks have been really heavy legged and low enthusiasm to push – symptoms of over OT for sure…
you end up learning “that feeling” –
i generally pull the pin on training and the use of a massage and roller is good idea as stated above.
although, i dont stop riding or running though, just keep it at a super low intensity and shorter distances (and i mean LOW!)

if i stop totally then i feel really sluggish and hard to get back into it..

oh and eat more croissants & latte’s. that always helps.

the only race your in is the race with yourself – so take it easy and enjoy the riding!

I’ve been a victim of this on a few occasions. I do ride a fair amount, commute 5 days a week with a midweek evening ride and a long one at weekend too.

Don’t know if it’s a coincidence but I seem quite suspectible to colds/sore throats especially after huge efforts. For example an 8 hour mtb ride on Saturday (Fighting the bonk at the end) followed by a high intensity road ride on Sunday for 3 hours. I’m now full of manflu 🙁

In your situation I would just take 5-7 days off, only doing very light riding if at all. Focus on chilling out, doing some other stuff to biking and eating good healthy food. You’ll come back feeling really fresh and much stronger.

have a look at Joe Friel’s book or his blog for more info.

I’ve been a victim of this on a few occasions. I do ride a fair amount, commute 5 days a week with a midweek evening ride and a long one at weekend too.

Don’t know if it’s a coincidence but I seem quite suspectible to colds/sore throats especially after huge efforts. For example an 8 hour mtb ride on Saturday (Fighting the bonk at the end) followed by a high intensity road ride on Sunday for 3 hours. I’m now full of manflu I do the same and get exactly this sometimes. Sore throat/mild flu symptoms/fatigue.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m doing too much exercise (even though there are a lot of people who do considerably more!) or not eating enough or what. Possibly don’t get enough sleep or rest as I ride most days. I do try not to ride too hard on the commute but that is easier said than done!

I always take a 3 or 4 week sabbatical Jan/Feb

The Summer legs have gone and churning around in crappy conditions only makes me better at churning round in crappy conditions.

Give it a break and feel loads better afterwards

the only race your in is the race with yourself – so take it easy and enjoy the riding!

Your constant misuse of “your” aside, how do you know that? If you’re trying to actually get fit to win races then it’s a little more complex than that.

IMO commuting can be an easy route to overtraining – easy to spend too much time riding just a bit too hard, often lots of traffic lights etc so you end up doing lots of little sprints, and often overlooked as time in the saddle, because it’s something you always do. I know it kills my legs.

@njee20
if your getting fit to win races you’d have a coach or PT and he/she would have you on a proper program & monitoring tools that would ensure you would not overtrain – look at the OP original post and tell me where you see he/she is getting ready to compete. if that would have shown up in the post, i would have done a different response obviously!

Remember there is massive difference in fatigue related to ‘training’ ie setting out with the intention of target efforts, riding at threshold, intervals etc. As opposed to just riding with your pals lots on big rides etc over the summer and knackering yourself out. As has been mentioned above if you trained with HR or RPE your data would soon point to overtraining.

Obviously diet, lifestyle choices and recovery are all encompassed in a ‘training’ period.

if your getting fit to win races you’d have a coach or PT and he/she would have you on a proper program & monitoring tools that would ensure you would not overtrain

Why would you? You might, but plenty don’t, even at a high level. Many performance symptoms of overtraining can’t really be measured, or are consistent with other problems an athlete could incur as well. There are no defined markers.

The OP doesn’t say they’re looking to compete, but they are enjoying their new found fitness, they may not want to give all that away by slowing down and losing it again…

3 weeks hard building in intensity, 1 week easy

Seems to be a good or well-regarded ratio.
Sore throat and general fatigue = time to rest. Training is about recovery as much as it’s about effort, either that or you’re verging on illness.

I’ve only ever had that ‘potentially over-training’ feeling twice but both times felt a lot better for easing right back on the effort for a week and just keeping going with recovery-pace rides, or an hour on the turbo while reading if it was cold out.