Eric, aged 22 from the USA writes:I am a category 1 cyclist in training for the olympic trials in june of this year.When I was 19 I experienced a total loss of my ability to recover.. After having my doctor run all sorts of test on me and concluding I was completely healthy, I was forced to sit out the rest of the year. The next year I experienced repeated sore throats accompanied by high fevers. These finally got bad enough that I went to see a doctor. He prescribed an antibiotic, Which cleared up all my problems, Including my lack of recovery. Anyway, now I'm 22 and things were going just fine until I started getting into the heavy weight section of my lifting program. I began to develop a bit of a cold, so I backed off of my training. The problem is that my resting heart rate has not returned to normal(one month later). My resting heart rate is normally 53. It is now 57, and has been as high as 63. In addition, my heart will jump to 105-120 when I stand up after taking my resting heart raate. This is all after a month of nothing but active rest (hiking and short spins on my rollers). Have any suggestions? Coach:A chronically higher than normal heart rate is correctly interpreted as a sign of over-training. Over-training does not necessarily mean you have been doing too much. It is too much relative to your current physical state. My bet is that you have a low level virus that is lingering and you cannot get rid off. This is a fairly common problem. You feel okay for a while and you hammer. Then as your resistance falls the virus takes over again and you feel poor. You never rest for long enough to fully eliminate the virus from your body. Rest is indicated.Another thing I note is that your resting HR is very high. My own is 38. How have you measured that? You should use your HR monitor to get an accurate reading. The fact that it soars very quickly on slight exertion is indicative of an unrested body, although this reaction is not uniform. For example, my own HR will not do anything much when I am tired. It just sits on 44 or so, and is very sluggish. But by far the most normal response is the one you describe. Again, rest is indicated. You mentioned that anti-biotics helped. First, that would indicate some bacterial presence rather than my first guess of a virus. You should get a blood test to confirm either. In general, I do not advise using anti biotics because they kill all your bugs and lower your resistance to future infection especially as you start training hard again. There is a lot of evidence that anti-biotic use in top level athletes precedes chronic fatigue syndrome. I am not helping you very much I know. I would go to a specialist sports doctor and get a blood test. But all the things you describe indicate rest. How long? 64 million dollar question which hardly any rider knows the answer too. Always too long. |