Something's Not Right - Any Ideas?

spinner32 said:

...Over the past few weeks though, my legs have been feeling awful. I mean, seriously horrible. My heart-rate in the mornings is normal, but while on the bike, even small efforts cause my quads to tighten, and my HR to skyrocket in a matter of seconds ... Another large concern is that my body weight has dropped by about 8 lbs since coming to school - and I am NOT in need of weight reduction at all. (I'm trying to gain weight actually.)

I was going to ask if you thought you could be somewhat sleep deprived but then you got to the weight loss. That's a lot of weight for someone not needing to lose. I'd get to the doctor. Good luck.

Thanks for your reply.
I have been monitering my sleep actually. I was behind on rest due to school work and such, getting only about 6-7 hours of sleep for a two and a half week period of time. My weight has stabilized, but I'm still down 4 lbs from where I was when I arrived. I'm wondering if this might have been the first signs of overtraining syndrome now. In addition to the log of my sleep, I've been trying to cut down on training-related activities, and recording my morning resting heart rate.

HR is good, actually going down about 1bpm every four days. Mid summer it was 42 in the morning, right now it is about 44, was 49 when I started recording it due to my concerns - seems to fit overtraining syndrome criteria.

Overall I've been feeling a bit better. I called my doctor, who said I should focus on resting a bit more and see how I feel in a week or two. I just want to make sure I'm fit enough (in a health sense) to begin winter training in a couple weeks, and be strong enough to get the most out of the regimen.

spinner32 said:

Thanks for your reply.
I have been monitering my sleep actually. I was behind on rest due to school work and such, getting only about 6-7 hours of sleep for a two and a half week period of time. My weight has stabilized, but I'm still down 4 lbs from where I was when I arrived. I'm wondering if this might have been the first signs of overtraining syndrome now. In addition to the log of my sleep, I've been trying to cut down on training-related activities, and recording my morning resting heart rate.

HR is good, actually going down about 1bpm every four days. Mid summer it was 42 in the morning, right now it is about 44, was 49 when I started recording it due to my concerns - seems to fit overtraining syndrome criteria.

Overall I've been feeling a bit better. I called my doctor, who said I should focus on resting a bit more and see how I feel in a week or two. I just want to make sure I'm fit enough (in a health sense) to begin winter training in a couple weeks, and be strong enough to get the most out of the regimen.

How is your stress level? I find that when I am under significant stress, I notice it on the bike. This is particularly evident around changes in heart rate (higher or lower) at rest or at a given known effort level.

RelevantAaron said:

How is your stress level? I find that when I am under significant stress, I notice it on the bike. This is particularly evident around changes in heart rate (higher or lower) at rest or at a given known effort level.

Definitely on the high end as far as stress goes. I like to think it is a positive stress [img]cyclingforums.comrolleyes.gifOpen ↗[/img], which is leading to my academic growth though! Haha, well, I guess we'll see. This is a good point, though, because it has gotten me to think about my sleep patterns of late, which seem have been a little worse than I initially thought. Catching up on rest has been a big help. My legs are still not as strong as they used to be, but they're regaining a bit of [censored].

I have been taking time off the bike, and realizing that I was probably experiencing the early signs of overtraining syndrome... Does this seem right? I'm thinking 3-4 weeks easy spinning 2-3 times a week, and seeing how I feel. Not going to push it.

Any other advice for getting through this, perhaps from people who have been there themselves?