Overtrained or not?

racingsnail

I'm a little confused by all the different (and contradictory) advice concerning overtraining.

I have been doing a lot of winter mileage between 13-15 hrs a week including time in the gym. Recently I tried to do an 8 mile TT to assess my current fitness state - and found that I could only sustain a heart rate of around 168bpm average (LT). I did a similar test at this time last year (after less winter mileage) and the average was about 181bpm, this is a big difference. If its any help I think my max HR is 193bpm, I'm a 22 year old male, and my resting HR is about 42bpm.

I thought I was overtrained, and I've had about 2 1/2 weeks off, with light recovery type riding (no more than 4hrs a week). I tried again to raise my HR in a testing environment today, and it was still around 168-170bpm.

I feel fine, and don't have any 'symptoms' of overtraining, so could it be that my heart is just much more efficient after a lot of aerobic winter miles (i.e bigger stroke volume - doesn't need to beat as fast?) or am I overtrained?

Another alternative, is that since I've not done much anaerobic training over the last 4-5 months my Lactate threshold has dropped off? - still it seems like a big loss.

I'd appreciate any advice anyone can give.

Thanks.

SniperX

you might be overtrained cos i have encountered very smiliar situations as yourself ... i took a couple of days off and when i came back i managed to raise my average heart rate 5 beats or more man... but then theres this crazy idea i had which is maybe i got less fit taking those days off ? so when i came back my heart had to work harder? confusing huh? hehe btw how do u measure yr resting heart rate? HrM ? if ure using one which one are u using?

racingsnail

I measure resting heart rate by lying in bed in the morning and counting how many beats it makes over a minute, by putting a couple of fingers against the neck.

VeloFlash

I would read the post on this board titled "The reason for failure to elevate HR to desired levels". I believe this covers your question about overtraining and failure to reach previous heart rate levels.