I’m now in my final block preparing for a half distance triathlon. I’ve been working harder than ever, averaging around 300TSS on the bike and roughly the same running plus two swim sets per week. All the work pays off, I am near all-time best w/kg, am hitting crazy fast run workouts and do not drown in the pool.
However, as I recently whined about in the Ironman thread, appears that it’s finally catching up with me, I feel chronically under recovered. I am still hitting most of my workout goals, but I feel pretty flat most of the time. Recently I took four complete days off, sleeping 10hrs each night and eating a lot. That helped, but I’m still unhappy.
Sleep is maxed out, I am getting a solid 8 - 9 hours of good quality shut eye most nights. I thought my nutrition was spot on, but now I am having doubts whether I might have deficits there. My diet is largely vegetarian, with a lot of fresh fruit, oats and grains and fresh prepared meals in the evenings. Very little sugar, moderate amounts of black coffee, hardly any meat, very little alcohol.
I feel like my total volume isn’t that crazy high but even that appears unsustainable for me. I wonder what people do to stay ahead of chronic fatigue? Anyone familiar with these symptoms? I’ll schedule a blood test soon to have my iron and vitamin d levels checked, anyone experience with that?
All thoughts are appreciated. I am so happy with my progress it would be a shame to lose it all to chronic fatigue or overtraining.
Could be over-training, but it’s good you’re taking extra precautions on getting checked out.
You seem to be doing all the right things, i.e., sleep, nutrition, complete days off but you didn’t say anything about spending time either cross training, catching up with family/friends, or other hobbies and entertainment. Some of those times rather than worrying about fitness, workouts, etc, it helps to really take a mental break and do something completely different. I found doing yoga, hiking, or a date night helped recharge my mental state as well as physical.
YMMV but keep us posted on any improvements! We’re all here to learn and help each other out!
Yep - I would think you are on the right lines - if you get 8hrs sleep a night and you are keeping the TSS reasonable plus decent diet then I would say anaemia is the most likely culprit - so blood test should be good - even if it isn’t that I would think the test will give you peace of mind or show up something - good luck
I’d try eating more, specifically carbs. But you may want to count your macros for a week or so and see how much protein you’re getting in at the moment too.
Are you supplementing since you are mostly vegetarian? Maybe you should get a basic blood test at your docs office including B12, iron, and anything else that could be an area of concern for a vegetarian.
My other thought is making sure you are eating enough calories and getting enough protein as a vegetarian.
FWIW, the recovery protocol I’m following for protein is eating at least 20 grams 4-5X per day. 20 grams is the magic number to kick off protein synthesis in the body. I usually go well above 20 though if I eat meat. It’s always closer to 20 if I eat vegetarian.