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For most cyclists, there is nothing better than getting on a bike for as long as possible. Add to that going fast, pushing up hills, or cruising over rocks and roots on a mountain bike, and it’s easy to do too much without realizing it.
But incorporating recovery strategies into your training will likely build more enjoyment and success into your cycling. That’s because when you overdo it during your training or skip rest days, you could be setting yourself up for overtraining syndrome.
“Overtraining syndrome, put simply, is doing more than your body can handle over a long period of time, and it can take months to recover properly,” Garret Seacat, C.S.C.S., USA Cycling-certified coach, tells Bicycling. “It occurs most often when athletes are trying to take on a much larger volume than they could possibly handle, and often you won’t realize you’ve done too much until it’s too late.”
However, your body does tell you when you are overdoing it, and it does so with specific overtraining symptoms—you just have to listen. Here, the signs you should look for to avoiding going overboard in your training and what to do if you spot the symptoms.
4 Overtraining Symptoms to Look Out For
Think of this list of overtraining symptoms as an early detection system, alerting you that you’re veering toward a decline in performance.
1. Loss of Motivation
You don’t really feel like training today, but it’s on your plan, so you’re going to power through anyway. If that happens every once and a while, that’s okay, Seacat says. But when it’s every day? Pay attention.
“This is a common first sign [of overtraining], and it may come with other signs like lack of concentration,” he adds. “It can be hard to recognize this, especially if you struggle with motivation in general, but if this is happening day after day, take time off.”
Riding should feel like fun, even if that fun means pushing through a tough challenge that leaves you with a sense of accomplishment. If it’s no longer fun, that means trouble.
2. Poor Sleep
According to a study published in Frontiers in Physiology in 2018, poor sleep and overtraining can be bidirectional: If you have several nights of disrupted sleep, that could negatively affect your training. Or if you’re consistently overtraining, you can start to develop sleep issues. Regardless of the starting point, the researchers are clear that both will worsen if nothing changes.
Sleep quantity and quality declines following too-fast increases in training load, researchers found via that study, and poor sleep is a common complaint among overtrained athletes. That can lead to a bigger ripple effect, given all the health risks associated with poor sleep, including depressed mood and lower immune function.
In short: You need good sleep to recover and perform well, so if you’re not getting quality shut-eye, pay attention.
3. Fatigue and Bad Mood
Connected to both poor quality sleep and lack of motivation, fatigue can tank your mood and lead to being crabby, reactive, and generally miserable, Paul Warloski, C.P.T., USA Cycling-certified coach, tells Bicycling.
“[Overtraining is] a state of being perpetually irritable and tired,” he says. “One way to know if this is connected to overtraining is to take a few rest days and do other things, like go for a swim or watch movies—anything but train. If you feel a sense of relief, that tells you something.”
4. Physical Changes
Other signs of overtraining to keep in mind, according to Warloski: Increased resting heart rate, more prevalence of injury or illness, and muscle soreness that lasts longer than usual.
Keep an eye on your heart rate variability too (if you have a watch that regularly checks this), as a high HRV has also been linked to overtraining, according to research.
Many of these changes can be a normal part of training, by the way, but if they are each inconsistent, that’s when it’s really a problem.
How to Address Overtraining Symptoms
In general, it’s a tricky balance, says Warloski. After all, “functional overreaching” is a goal for anyone who wants to progress in a sport, including cycling. That’s the point where you’re overloading your body with enough stress that it has to adapt, becoming more efficient and fit, he adds.
Monitoring heart rate variability can be useful, he says, but in many cases, the signs are more subjective—like irritability and tiredness.
The only way to recover is to rest and drastically reduce volume for a minimum of one month, Seacat says. “After a month, if you are still showing signs of overtraining, you may need an additional two to six weeks to get fully recovered,” Seacat explains. “If you have a coach, now is a time to increase communication to make sure you don’t accidentally start training too hard, too soon.”
Because overtraining can also be psychological, it’s smart to lean not just on your coach, but also your friends and family to help bring you out of the burnout.
To prevent overtraining from becoming a problem again after you recover, sometimes it’s better to look at the most common causes first, says Seacat. Although a dearth of recovery time is a major factor, it’s also important to look at others like the volume of races, heat, or altitude exposure, and even stress in your personal life.
Go over your training plan and see if you can pinpoint when signs of overtraining began, and then look at the months before that. It may be frustrating to downshift initially, but Seacat says proper recovery can keep you cycling in a healthier, safer way. And maybe even keeping you cycling for longer once you get back out there.
Elizabeth Millard is a freelance writer focusing on health, wellness, fitness, and food.
John Vasudevan, M.D. is an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He is board-certified in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine. He is a Team Physician for UPenn Athletics and medical director of the Broad Street Run and Philadelphia Distance Run, and previously for the Rock 'n' Roll Half-Marathon and Tri-Rock Triathlon in Philadelphia. He is a director of the running and endurance Sports Medicine Program at Penn Medicine. Dr. Vasudevan provides non-operative management of musculoskeletal conditions affecting athletes and active individuals of all levels, and combines injury rehabilitation with injury prevention. He utilizes a variety of ultrasound-guided procedures and regenerative approaches such as platelet-rich plasma and percutaneous ultrasonic tenotomy. He sees patients at the Penn Medicine and the Philadelphia Veterans Administration hospital. Dr. Vasudevan attended medical school at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison. After his Transitional Year in Tucson, Arizona, he went to residency in PM&R at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and onwards to Stanford University for his fellowship in Sports Medicine. He has been in practice at the University of Pennsylvania since 2012.
