So I’m not the most dedicated cyclist ever, but I do do something that resembles a training block, then take a week easy, sometimes maybe too easy.
The problem is, I’ve gotten sick towards the end of the last couple of blocks, always at the end of the recovery or rest week. Is this a coincidence? My job is in a huge open office so there is no lack of people around to transfer illness. (This is allowed now because there are zero covid cases where I am.)
Is there anything I’m missing? Does recovery impact the immune system? I thought it would improve with rest.
How much are you training? Usually you will get sick during a recovery week if you run yourself down too much during the training block. Your immune system is suppressed and lets an illness in. Then during recovery your immune system will rebound and begin to fight whatever illness you picked up.
Sounds a lot like me. I may not even get any UR symptoms but I often feel “general malaise” after a ton of riding. Sometimes it just feels like normal fatigue, sometimes it’s like being “sick” usually minus any severe symptoms. It generally fades in a day or two and an indication that it was just time to take a day or two off.
You’ll have to continue to anticipate your body’s reaction to a big block. When we’re in the middle of a tough ride, or even a tough week we may feel ok, we’re high on endorphins and feel good in the moment. When it’s time to stop this is when our body starts the adaption process, often, it doesn’t feel great.
If my sleep hygiene or nutrition isn’t great during a big training block, I totally get little colds like what you describe, just general feeling ‘unwell’.
How many hours of sleep are you usually getting, during training block and rest week?
(also, I love this article on rest week nutrition), but are you eating enough during your block?
I get something similar to what others are saying during a rest week or the week after a hard race. I wouldn’t say I’m sick, but feel lousy for 3-5 days. Body temp feels strange with some general soreness and maybe a sore throat. My last two doctors have not really offered me any explanation.
Usually I can train through it and complete workouts but RPE maybe higher than expected. In the case of rest weeks I’m taking it easy anyways.
Every rest week, I feel as though I’m coming down with something. Very rarely is it actually an illness and I’ve put it down to super-compensation after a tough block.
I find if I spice up rest weeks with a mid-week sprint session, I can avoid this feeling of uurrrgghhhh…
Although I’ve heard of people having great days on terrible sleep, including me, I can’t say I’ve heard many coaches say anything less than 9 hours total per night is ideal on a regular basis with 8 being acceptable. Those are hours sleeping, not hours in bed.
Sleep as much as you can @evrevzbcm. Obviously, your body isn’t happy with the recovery that you do give it currently. Seems like the options are; train less, sleep more, diet change, and/or reduce stress elsewhere (ie work, relationships, budget, start some form of meditation, etc.). Training less is probably the easiest to change from your comments.
That is very relatable- I always look forward to my recovery week and then feel a little bummed/bored when I’m not doing hard workouts… but, you know, it’s a nice problem to have…
I do generally feel sick and a little depressed after big rides (400+ tss), mostly if I’m dehydrated. I had a couple weeks where I felt worse after my recovery week than I did before it. I generally only follow the plan during the week and ride big on the weekends, so it could be that I don’t every fully shred the fatigue.
I’m convinced that lactic acid also causes mild depression
When you arrive at the recovery week, is that your 4th week? So 3 on and then recover?
I’m wondering if you could try 2 on and 1 recover to see if that makes a difference, sometimes at the en for the 3rd week I’m very tired and can get run down. Are you nailing the end of the final week feeling good?
Yah I’ve read probably a hundred articles on sleep recommendations and basically all of them say the same thing. Not trying to say that 6 hours is a good target. However, I do think that people are different so you can’t make a blanket statement for everyone. Personally, I just have a hard time sleeping more than 6 hours. Even if I go to bed early, non-stressed, not drinking, without anything I need to wake up for, it is often harder to sleep more than 6. 7 at most. Based upon these experiences, I often go to bed later now rather than wake up early morning and get frustrated because I can’t fall back asleep.
Certainly, people should sleep as much as their bodies will allow them to.
