Is it possible to over-train?

[Mick Mudd]

When Fausto Coppi was once asked for training advice on how to win races, he replied "Ride a bike, ride a bike, ride a bike".
Some of my clubmates took that advice to heart and seemed to thrive on logging up big mileages in training, but personally I found it was just knackering me, so I cut down on my mileage and felt much better.
Was I some kind of freak or what?

 

[HLaB]

When Fausto Coppi was once asked for training advice on how to win races, he replied "Ride a bike, ride a bike, ride a bike".
Some of my clubmates took that advice to heart and seemed to thrive on logging up big mileages in training, but personally I found it was just knackering me, so I cut down on my mileage and felt much better.
Was I some kind of freak or what?

Theres hundreds if not thousands of articles on training smartly. A simple analogy is: Train like a Belgian hard man (or Coppi in the past), train hard and get strong but not optimum as your body is always recovering to a degree. Or train like Pogacar (the 80/20 principle) and push hard 20% of the time triggering your body to adapt but go easy or rest 80% of the time and let those adaptions take place. All modern training plans have some degree of rest to let adaptions take place rather than constant riding which suppresses them. Training has moved on from the likes of Coppi et al.

 

[ColinJ]

It definitely IS possible to overtrain.

A friend of mine did a 2 week cycling holiday with me in March one year. I did about 1,200 km of fairly hard cycling while there. He did 1,500 km of VERY hard cycling. When we got back, I was pretty fit; he was VERY fit.

After that, my mate was doing 250-300 km of cycle-commuting a week, and then 100-200 km at the weekend. By May he was super-fit. By June he was faltering. In July he slowed to a crawl. August was awful for him...

I, in contrast, got fitter and fitter as the year went by, despite doing less than half of what he was doing.

In the autumn (as usual) we rode the Manchester 100 event together. He struggled to get round. For the first time ever I was dropping him, and having to wait for him to catch up.

He cut right back on his cycling, but the damage was done. It took him the rest of the year to recover.

 

[presta]

A friend of mine did a 2 week cycling holiday with me in March one year. I did about 1,200 km of fairly hard cycling while there. He did 1,500 km of VERY hard cycling. When we got back, I was pretty fit; he was VERY fit.

After that, my mate was doing 250-300 km of cycle-commuting a week, and then 100-200 km at the weekend. By May he was super-fit. By June he was faltering. In July he slowed to a crawl. August was awful for him...

I, in contrast, got fitter and fitter as the year went by, despite doing less than half of what he was doing.

In the autumn (as usual) we rode the Manchester 100 event together. He struggled to get round. For the first time ever I was dropping him, and having to wait for him to catch up.

He cut right back on his cycling, but the damage was done. It took him the rest of the year to recover.

That's how it goes.

If you overtrain you get miraculous increases in 'fitness' at first but the improvement ceases as the fatigue sets in, then you think it's because you're not training hard enough and start flogging yourself even harder. The worse your performance gets the more you train, and so the worse it gets. What's so insidious is that the symptoms are counterintuitive, and not at all obvious, so you're lucky if you recognise it for what it is.

People think it only happens to athletes, but you don't need to be an athlete, just persisting with a level of exercise that's too far above your current fitness level will do it.

 

[HLaB]

A bit OT perhaps, a user of the TR forum who claims to be Dr Coggan claims very few folk have got the capacity to overtrain to a degree that physically hurts them (it does happen though); most folk who overtrain only do it to a degree where they are constantly fatigued and further training whilst doing them no disbenefit, doesn't give them any benefit either.

 

[craigwend]

Getting fit – and staying fit – changes as we get older, but whether you’re an experienced cyclist or you’re just getting into riding, here’s how to get the most from your time in the saddle...

https://road.cc/content/feature/how...npcNoes7AcYpAPeQ7p2PtoJAuwVVTwk19_wLGdJrlxmjQ

 

[Gwylan]

I have avidly devoted myself to avoiding training in most forms.
Exception was, for me, a long distance journey. For that I rehearsed by cycling to work and back 40k each way.
One upshot was that I became recognised by the shop workers since I used their shower to change before work.
I practised my Flemish, gave them a laugh and got me the courtesy title of "engelse fietser"
My colleagues (local) were amazed when I got a "hallo" from guys as we passed through the plant.
Also meant my team got things done where others met bureaucracy and forms.

 

[Jameshow]

"Never knowingly over trained!"

to quite the JL phrase!!

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Yep I have done it and was never really the same again

 

[Ian H]

To be fair to Coppi, I think he was only suggesting that there was no easy alternative, not that you should ride yourself into the ground.

 

[cyberknight]

Also depends on what else your doing in your life, if you have a heavy / physical job your body can be on its knees even before your try to train.

 

[johnnyb47]

Is it possible to over train? Definitely.
When you cycle/exercise hard your breaking down your muscles..A rest period is needed for your muscles to repair and when they repair they become stronger.If you don't allow sufficient time for your muscles to repair, you will become weaker.

 

[CXRAndy]

Yes you can overtrain. I don't ride or train as much as I used to . I was fitter with more riding, but more prone to ilness, fatigue. I have more rest days between riding which is mainly Zwift racing

 

[Once a Wheeler]

Believe it or not, this is Fausto Coppi:

Despite the caption, I suspect this is a shot taken in the small hours of the morning during the neutralized period of a six-day race in the era when that meant someone in the team was on the track for every hour of every day. From the thick clothing, I would guess a January Antwerp 6 at about 4 a.m. when the first editions come out. As the man said, 'ride a bike'; but as others have remarked, not necessarily flat out.