Anyone else suffer with not being able to sleep after prolonged exercise. After my 6.5hr ride yesterday I felt pretty knackered, but as usual I went to bed only to lie there awake all night. No sleep equals ringing boss to take a days holiday as I am no good for a days work.

Just wonder why this is as most people I know don’t have any problems sleeping after prolonged exercise.

Thanks

I do if I finish late.

You ate, rehydrated etc well after?

Yep

Get the same,very restless and limbs seem to have a life of their own.

Always ensure I drink plenty of fluids during the ride, and use power bar revovery drink as soon as I get back and ate a meal soon after.

Really frustrating. The other thing I always notice is that prolonged exercise causes my heart rate to stay elevated above my usual resting rate. My heart rate is elevated slightly above normal even now.

I wonder if it due to the fact that I am not conditioned for such long rides and my body is pushed too far.

Just read the other posts. Seems like others also struggle as well. This is really interesting as a google search does not reveal any scientific studies on this very topic.

how regularly do you go for six and a half hour rides and what’s your sleep and recovery usually like afterwards ?

Kev

Put me off night riding. Really not good.

How long after the end of the ride are you going to bed?

Are you using energy drinks/bars/gels during your ride?

Keva prob has the answer – you are well out of the comfort zone with the long ride?

The effect on sleep, twitching muscles…are you even stretching?

I get this as well – including the restless legs thing – usually only when I’m on an early season training camp, so maybe that ties in with pushing your body a bit too far?

I sometimes get it too. I definitely associate it with being over-tired.

pretty much over training – your RHR stays elevated as your bodys in shock and trying to repair- its not used to the length of exercise.

i always had trouble sleeping after a 24 for similar reasons – twitchy legs and shoulders – that and the ammount of stimulants in my system 😉

That is the point. My longest ride before this one was under 4 hours so I can see why my body is in shock. Over training sounds like the probable cause.

I currently only get to ride twice a week, but want to get used to doing longer rides.

Would doing a 5-6 hour ride each weekend get my body used to doing longer rides, or do I need to spend more time cycling during the week as well?

I did wear my heart rate, and kept myself under my AT, apart from a very few hills where it went slightly above.

Usually, I don’t have any issues sleeping after a 3 hour ride, unless, I push myself way too hard and spend too much time above my AT, in which case I suffer from the same problem.

For me, over-tiredness = Restless Leg Syndrome. Can normally drop off pretty fast though. It’s just a signal that I need to sleep.

power bar revovery drink as soon as I get back and ate a meal soon after.

Beer & kebab instead will have you snoozing like a baby.

pretty much over training – your RHR stays elevated as your bodys in shock and trying to repair- its not used to the length of exercise.

+1 for this.

Build up slower to your longer ride, a huge jump from under 4 hours – 6.5.

It’s already been said but just to make sure you know…

You over did it. Did you have any recover red wine?

I sleep like a baby after hard exercise, bed feels amazing and I’m out like a light.

In the realms of Restless Leg Syndrome I can highly recommend tonic water as a tip from here – 1 glass squeeze of Lemon and Lime works a trick for me after a bit of running. I don’t do enough riding to hurt my legs much these days.

From what people have said it does look like I over did it. What I want to know is whether now that I have done a 6.5hr ride I am good to do it again, or should I drop back and do rides that are 4-5 hrs in duration. Only reason I ask is that there is a 100 miler coming up in 2 weeks near my home town and was thinking of doing it.

PS – Can over doing it cause long term damage?

Thanks

Do it. You’ll be fine.

PS – Can over doing it cause long term damage?

I have no real evidence but I strongly suspect it was a big factor in ending up with CFS/ME (!).

Hell yeah. Only when I’ve dug in too deep though, as above.
Normally some kind of race when guts/nutrition might be a bit off centre too.

intensity of activity and duration of pre bed chill time determines how well I sleep. Hydration as well.

Late night squash games were a killer for this and used to have me awake until early hours.

Some tweeting with idave suggests it relates to the rate at which the body returns to homeostasis. The harder you and longer push yourself, the longer it takes to revert.

Though to do it to the extent you can’t go into work tells me you need to man up a touch..!

More sensible advice:

Hydration during and after
Have a cool down at the end of the ride – I always ride like a granny for the last section to my house (helps lower HR)
Don’t overdo the nutritional stimulation – sugar, caffeine – during or after
Cool your body down – helps lower core temperature
Crash out soon after riding – if i do that, I always sleep better that night. (Obv no good for night riding)

as i wrote in a post the other day regarding hearts. my cardiologist said should never exercise post 6pm and should not eat post 8pm for just this reason

Used to have trouble sleeping after tough swim sets in the evening a few years ago, but started using an SIS product called Nocta or something like that and it worked a treat. Slept like a good un and felt on the ball in the morning……

Can over doing it cause long term damage

Yes. If you over train mildy and back off enough, you’ll recover ok after a bit. Continue with over training and it’ll take a lot longer to come back from.

“The negative consequences of overtraining are often gradual. The body is quite good at masking the earliest symptoms. But overtraining is a canny adversary. The problems it engenders will triumph in the end, unless changes are made to training, diet, and stress level.

Stage 1 or functional overtraining: The onset and earliest stage, very subtle indicators can clue you in that you’re heading for more serious problems.

Stage 2 or sympathetic overtraining. Brain and nervous system and hormonal imbalances cause a variety of signs and symptoms.

Stage 3 or parasympathetic overtraining. A serious condition, it results in exhaustion, severely affecting the nervous system, muscles, and hormonal levels.

The overtraining syndrome typically results in poor athletic performance, structural injury, such as in the foot, knee, or lower back, secondary to muscle imbalance, and metabolic problems, such as fatigue, infection, bone loss, sexual dysfunction, altered mood states, and brain and nervous system dysfunction. The signs and symptoms go beyond training and competition problems; they can even affect a person’s quality of life, sometimes for many years. More importantly, in the earliest stage many of the problems of overtraining are somewhat vague and indistinct unless a careful evaluation is made”.

should never exercise post 6pm and should not eat post 8pm for just this reason

It’s a wonder I sleep at all.

Did you feel tired earlier in the day? If so have a nap.

I got this after doing hard interval sessions.

Cold shower for 1 minute seemed to help.

Ha, OP does a ride a couple of hours longer than usual and gets told he’s overtraining!?! 😯
Anyone wanting to get fitter in a controlled way should increase the amount of excercise they do each week by 10%, either in time or distance.
If you listened to most of the advice on here you would never get fitter, it’s like half the riders I know who haven’t progressed in years but who are going to enter that next event when they lose weight/get fitter etc. 🙄
I’m sure it’s been said before, unless you’re really unfit most folk don’t overtrain, they under-recover. Unless you’re training multiple times a week or doing Tabata sessions, it’s hard to overtrain.
If you’re training hard, plenty of sleep and extra food! You know you’re over doing it when you stop seeing any gains or start picking up injuries.

BTW being dehydrated messes with your temperature control and can mess with sleeping as a result.

Though to do it to the extent you can’t go into work tells me you need to man up a touch..!

I agree, I was being a bit of a lazy git. To be honest I could not face sitting at my desk all day doing some boring rubbish!