Overtraining by John Josephs
Filed under: Workouts & Training Plans
Racing season is getting close and I know you have all been training hard. During the winter months, you spend a great deal of time building your endurance and aerobic base. Now, workouts will be getting harder as the intensity increase to help you build your speed. It is important that no one ever overtrains and gets hurt. If you feel exhaused days after a hard workout and experience general apathy and lethargy, you may be overtraining. Loss of appetite, poor sleep, and mood changes are also symptoms that you may experience. Coaches take precautions to avoid this by periodizing training plans, inserting recovery weeks and alternation hard and easy days, but sometimes overtraining will happen. The number one thing you can do to help prevent this is to keep up with your rest and nutrition and make sure your diet is high in carbohydrates. During training, make sure you know your sweat rate and hydrate properly and replace your fluid and glycogen (energy for exercise) on the bike with energy drinks, gels and energy bars. Depending on the weight of the cyclist, about 30 to 75 grams of carbohydrates can be consumed per hour to keep up with fuel needs. In addition, 4 to 8 ounces of fluids should be ingested every 15 to 20 minutes to obtain the needed amounts of fluids and energy. Get your digestive system accustomed to specific foods and drinks and only use these during a race. Never try something new on race day! Lastly, close attention should be paid to recovery nutrition and restoring these glycogen stores. Sixteen to twenty ounces of a 4:1 carbohydrate/protein drink should be consumed immediately following the completion of a prolonged and intense exercise session. Chocolate milk is an excellent post-training recovery drink because it meets the 4:1 ratio. Post-exercise intake of carbohydrates should continue for two to four hours and any fluid loss deficit should be replenished.
Train hard, train smart!