In sport, what are the tell tale signs that you are overtraining?

Question

I do a bit of competitive mountain bike racing.
Is it bad to train everyday, and should I take a break the day after an intermediate session (training in short, hard bursts... I think...!)?

Answer 1

The #1 thing that I watch for was my resting heart beat in the morning. Let's say your resting heart beat is right around 50 bpm. If you wake up in the morning and notice an increase of 10 or more beats then somthing is wrong. I would either just take the day off or just do some lite training. Your body has not recovered yet and your resting heart rate is telling you so. There are excellent references on the web and in books to set a schedule to train by with rest days. Have a great time traing.

Answer 2

I started training with a felame of lesser ability and found the training of no real challenge for a couple of weeks, then in a comp i really kicked ***, this is how i found out i was training too much, reduce your training and see if the results improve. Good luck, remember you can only go wrong when you try and each mistake is a step closer to an easier path.

Answer 3

Rest is as important as time spent training on the bike. You MUST rest, this is the time your body needs to adapt and build muscle to deal with the training your putting yourself through.
If you start to feel tired a lot, maybe get diarrhoa, find your not sleeping well and importantly if your racing that your actually going slower the more you train then you are over-training and need more rest time planned in your training schedule.

Answer 4

one good sign is that you will constantly feel tired. you shouldnt train everyday. the method i use is to go for a hard ride twice a week. if you feel like riding the other days, just go for a criuse - dont push yourself hard but go more just to enjoy it.

recap: ride hard twice a week, go easy for about 3 or 4 days, then rest a day or two.

take advantage of the plethora of energy products on the market. a good way to cool down after any ride is to get a good dose of protein. this will help your muscles regenerate. you need 7-9 hours of sleep each night also, since that is when your muscles develop the most (because they have nothing else better to do!)

Answer 5

It is wise to take a break after a race to let your body recover
In my opinion a lot of athletes over train and they should take a break every so often to give themselves a chance to recover.
This does not need to be long but a lot of lactic acid can build up and to give your muscles a chance take a day out every so often especially after a race.

Answer 6

You can't walk.

Last summer, I used to do long distance urban mountain biking, weight training and Tae Kwon Do.

I ended up not being able to walk for 6 days straight because I was too sore and too fatigued to do anything.

Answer 7

You should definitely take rest days to allow your body to recover, listen to your body if you feel tired then don't be afraid to miss a session, especially if you are feeling under parr

Answer 8

Muscle strains, fatigue

Answer 9

A heart attack's a pretty good point at which to take a break.

Answer 10

Fatigue
Irritability
Tiredness
Hunger
Apathy
Obsessiveness