(soft music)
- Welcome back to the triathlon training explained show
powered by TrainingPeaks.
And this week we're addressing the issue of over training.
- [Female Host] As triathletes it's so hard to find
that balance between training hard
to getting fitter and stronger
with recovery.
Now I know I can be guilty of
and I don't think I'm alone in sometimes
reducing my rest and recovery
just so I can fit in all my training
around my working week.
- Yeah, I've been there, I've overtrained
and have even had glandular fever as a result
so I can certainly talk from my own experience.
And as triathletes we do tend to
push ourselves to the limit.
We tend to ignore recovery
and the signs of over training
and the results can be pretty devastating.
- And it can be a little bit confusing
trying to know if maybe you're
just a little bit tired from that hard session
or if those are signs of fatigue.
Now, we're gonna be delving into this topic,
speaking to some experts,
and giving you our opinions as well.
(driving music)
Well we've had so many questions
on this topic but before we go
and speak to the experts
we thought we'd have a bit of a discussion
from our own experiences.
- Yep, so I actually dug myself
a pretty deep hole when I was a swimmer
prior to triathlon.
I was about 15, 16 years old at the time
and I was getting up before five a.m. most mornings,
swimming for two hours, go straight to school,
then back to the pool for lane training
then swimming another couple of hours.
Initially, results were great and then
eventually I started to burn out
And there was a small group of us
in the same situation.
We were getting ill, ignoring those signs
and just training through 'cause that's what you did.
You never missed your training.
I got to the point that I couldn't sleep
although all I wanted to do was sleep,
I couldn't get my heart rate up
I felt flat, and my times were getting slower.
Now, I wish I didn't have to go through all of that
but I did learn a lot from it
and I actually train a lot differently now.
I keep a much better track on my body
and how it responds.
- [Female Host] Yeah, I mean sometimes
you do have to go through it and
I didn't have quite such an obvious
fatigue as you did, I suppose .
Later on in my career, I'd gone through
some things at times where you can survive that
but it wasn't 'til later on and I
just got to the stage where
I didn't want to go training and
it wasn't just 'cause I was being lazy.
It felt like I was unfit but I wasn't
'cause I had been training hard
so I knew that I was fit and eventually
I went and spoke to the nutritionist
and he did bloods and because
I had regular bloods throughout my
pentathlon career, we then had a blood profile
to look at and it wasn't until
sort of, going back over that and seeing
there were certain markers that were
lower than normal for me but also
lower than what the recommended amount should be
and it was especially my iron levels
and my haemoglobin levels which
can be quite common in women and I hadn't
had that problem before but it was there
in black and white and I couldn't argue with it.
But on the positive side, once I knew what it was
I needed to address then I worked
with a nutritionist, I've changed my diet a little bit,
added in some supplements.
So it was amazing how quickly
my body reacted and actually my training
and my form soon came back.
- Well that's actually why we're here.
So hopefully you guys don't have to go through
the same experiences we have.
So firstly, we thought we'd chat to someone
that's looking after some of the top athletes.
- Well at the moment the Commonwealth Games
are on in Australia so
quite a lot of the coaches are away
but I've found the next best thing
and went to speak to a rowing coach.
Now you might think, now, why rowing?
Well, actually they have really intense hours.
They do rigorous training.
- [Male Host] Quite similar to triathletes-
- [Female Host] It is.
Yeah, in that sense.
So I wanted to find out what signs
they look for, for over training
and how they stop their athletes getting fatigued
and for that, I went to speak to
G.B. rowing coach, Dan Harris.
So Dan, you can start by just
telling me how do you monitor your athletes
and look for signs of over training?
- So, the main thing
that we get our athletes to do
every morning they fill in the
morning monitoring document and
that has their waking heart rate,
body weight,
and also things like
their current mood, how they're feeling,
like a general sort of well-being and feeling
ranked from one to ten.
So that sort of gives you and idea
of just how they're waking up feeling
as well as the actual data like
their weight and heart rate.
- [Female Host] And what signs
are you looking for within that?
- The quite key one is their heart rate,
if that's significantly spiked
to say anything seven or over
that needs a discussion.
Usually ten or over is a definite
like completely back off training
or no training that day
and usually if it's ten or more they
quite often have more of the symptoms, as well.
Quite obvious, whether it's illness,
or a bit of a sore throat, that sort of thing.
- [Female Host] And how do you
then prevent the over training happening?
So yeah, we have that monitoring tool
that we just keep check on
but I think the best thing really
is just an open discussion with the athletes.
So, obviously programming, trying to be
quite sensible, as sensible as you can
with the programme.
Just the open discussion daily with the athlete.
Just checking how they are,
how they're feeling, 'cause they're
gonna go through phases of fatigue
and you want that with the programme
but it's just making sure they don't
end up in a rut where they're
just not able to get out of it, really.
- [Female Host] And if you do ever...
An athlete gets to that stage and you
haven't managed to stop them from
getting really over trained
how do you then bring them back from that?
How do you help them with their recovery?
- Yeah, so we have a really good support network.
That we're able to use, access doctors
and stuff like that so we use them, but from them as well,
but initially we've found that you
just have to completely back right off.
Get healthy in a way, in normal life.
Able to sleep well, able to eat well.
Find normal life easy and then we'll just
integrate them back into training really steadily.
- Now I used to be pretty old school with my training
but after another bout of over training
as a result of my glandular fever
in the past, I decided that clearly wasn't working.
That's around the time that I started
working with Matthew Bottrell.
A renowned cyclist and also a coach
of some of the top athletes out there
like Lucy Charles, Tim Don, Rachel Joyce, and others.
He really opened my eyes to how
you can track your data from your training
and actually be a lot smarter with your training.
Particularly through the use of TrainingPeaks.
So I caught up with Matt earlier to discuss this.
Okay, Matt, you work more from
an online and data perspective.
How do you go about monitoring
your athletes training and making sure
that they're not over training?
- So one of the most powerful tools
that we use on the TrainingPeaks platform
is the performance management chart.
So what we're able to track by that is the
obviously the TSS Score that they're getting
from each of these sessions-
- And that's the stress per session?
- Yeah, the training stress per session
so each training zone acquires
said amount of points and that's
that's building what we call the CTL value.
You'll see on the performance management chart
Kind of what's happening is these TSS points
are building the CTL value and everbody's
kind of at this reach point where
they'll actually peak out of time
and if you overreach that,
what's happening actually after then
is the ATL, the Acute Training Load
is building, but also we've got like
what we call TSB which is the form
if you imagine zero, being fresh
the more negative you get, the more
stress you get.
- So I'm guessing during the training block
the training load and the fatigue is going up,
the form's coming down, so to allow
your body to adapt and improve,
you wanna allow that fatigue to come back down
and the form to go back up?
- Yeah, definitely.
But what happens when people overreach
is their acute training load just got
more and more and their TSB is getting
so negative.
You know, you start reaching those elements
where an ATL like mine is like 50
for a number of weeks and depreciating even more
then all of a sudden you're gonna hit this brick wall
and sometimes you can get out of that
but if you push it too much then that's when
you overreach
and that can build
a lot of fatigue.
- Working closely with your coach
and using various online trackers
such as the TrainingPeaks app
that Matt talked about are great ways
to measure your recovery and your training.
But sometimes you need to look
beyond the numbers and nutrition
is actually a really important area.
Now I went to speak to my old nutritionist
Nathan Lewis from the English Institute of Sport
and I asked him if poor nutrition
can actually affect fatigue.
- Yes.
Almost certainly it can, Heather.
There's a number of different areas
directly relevant to influencing fatigue.
For starters, now keeping it nice and simple
it's really important that the athlete
eats sufficient carbohydrate,
so we know that not consuming sufficient carbohydrate
during heavy training periods will increase fatigue,
adversely affect mood and recovery.
Protein is really important as well.
We know protein is crucial for repair and recovery.
The athlete is more likely to experience
increased muscle damage and inflammation
without sufficient protein.
Fruits and vegetables maybe not as obvious
to many athletes but we know from
research studies where fruits and vegetables
have been restricted for short periods of time
as little as two weeks,
we see increase in fatigue, increased inflammation,
so fruits and vegetables are really, really important.
So plant based foods.
And then finally, of course,
the vitamins and minerals.
And certainly there's some key micronutrients then.
To fit micronutrient deficiencies
that may present with fatigue would conclude
things like Iron, Magnesium deficiency
and certainly Vitamin D as well.
Which, of course, we get from sunlight
at certain times of the year.
- So, I mean, that's great.
You've part answered my second question already
but what maybe more an actual food consumption
might be lacking if someone's showing fatigue?
What foods would you want to maybe check
that they're eating?
- We did some interesting research
over a number of years where we
looked at athletes that had been medically diagnosed
by a sports physician with what we call
under performance syndromes, or over training syndrome.
And we found certainly in the athletes
that were diagnosed with that condition
that they had lower blood levels
of dietary antioxidants.
Antioxidants that reflected their intake
of fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds.
They had lower levels than the healthier athletes.
Maybe over time through chronically consuming
a poor intake of fruit and veg that they
experienced a poor recovery.
- Wow, that's like...
Did not know that.
Finally, again, you've probably
part answered that already but
what would you actually recommend people do
if they are beginning to get fatigue
or have over training.
What can they address quickly with their diet?
- [Nathan] Sure, in an ideal scenario
it would be great for them to meet with
a recognised professional and
have their diets formally assessed
but first of all they should certainly
have a look at their protein intake
in terms of quantity, in terms of timing,
very important, the different types of protein.
I'd also suggest they have a quick look
at their diet from a perspective
of these dietary antioxidants.
Are they consuming seven or eight servings
of fruits and vegetables a day?
There is that nice plant-rich diet
that's also been complimented with dairy
and with meat and fish sources.
Very interestingly, a group of researchers
going back 20 years looked at fatigue in a group
of Olympic athletes and found lower levels
of certain concentrations of amino acids.
But actually they restored the levels
of amino acids in the blood of the athletes
and the fatigue resolved with just
increasing the amount of milk in their diet.
They gave them an extra, I think it was,
25 grammes of milk protein a day
and over several weeks, they recovered.
So, there's some basic aspects
that you can do quite well.
- Now, I've already discussed
the use of blood tests in my theory
of helping to identify fatigue
but it can be quite hard to come by
and your local GP is probably not
going to be able to test the markers that you need
and then give you an analysis and the support
that you need following up
that relates it to your sport.
- Well actually later in my career
I came across Forth With Life so
go on to their website you can order a pack
it comes through, prick your finger
send the sample back and then a few day later
you just long online, onto their website
and you can see your results and feedback.
And there's actually...
There's a few companies out there
doing a similar thing, so it is becoming
more accessible but I'll be honest
we're a little bit out of our depth
when it comes to talking about
blood tests and the markers that
we should be looking out for.
So I actually spoke to Sarah Bolt,
the founder of Forth for Life, earlier.
Alright, Sarah, when people
have a blood test with yourself,
what are the specific markers
that you're looking out for in blood tests
that might highlight over training?
With a training load, there's about
five core markers that you would look at.
The most important one is Cortisol
which is a steroid hormone which is released
in the body at times of stress.
So that's the first one you'll look at.
The other markers that you would look at as well
along side that are white blood cell count.
If you're over training, your white blood cell count
will drop very low, meaning that
you're more prone to get illnesses.
Other markers you can look at as well
around inflammation so those would be
CRP, C-Reactive Protein and also Ferritin
which is a protein.
People usually look at Ferritin for the amount
of stored Iron they have in their blood.
But actually Ferritin also is an inflammation marker
so that will arise as well at times
if you are over training too much.
- [Male Host] Okay, so say someone
does have a blood test with yourself
through Forth with Life or Forth Edge
for the athletes out there,
what would they do...
What is kind of the process after
those first findings they've had...
After the test?
- Well the first thing for them to do really,
is establish what their baseline
so they'll need to know what their markers...
What the levels of those markers are
when they're resting.
Then they can know when they actually...
How they're overdoing it, how far those have risen.
So the important point is to first
establish a baseline number
and then track ongoing.
And that's the key really is to keep
tracking your markers over time.
And you can track during a recovery period as well.
During a recovery period your markers
should return back to baseline.
So if you're not seeing this,
then you know that you're over training.
- Okay, so it is really specific
to each individual.
So, whist, like one blood test
is really important and can be very useful
actually it's kind of a case of
having regular tests throughout the year
to see how they track individually-
- [Sarah] Yeah, absolutely.
At the end of the day, everyone is an individual
so it's about establishing what is normal for you
so it's really key that you establish
that resting number for yourself
especially around Cortisol.
I mean if you're training a lot
always expect Cortisol will rise
but it needs to return back to baseline
when you're actually during your recovery period.
If that isn't happening, you know that
you're probably overdoing it.
- Well beyond having a coach or
a detailed blood test, there's actually
a number of markers that you can track
from day to day quite easily
to help prevent you from over training.
- Yeah, I mean an old school way
you can literally record your sleep.
so what time you go to sleep,
what time you wake up,
and use a diary, writing how that felt.
Or you can take it a step further,
there's now lots of ways
of tracking your sleep with apps.
I personally use the Polar m430
because it continually tracks my sleep.
So it tells me when I had interruptions
throughout the night.
But there's lots of apps you can get for your phone
and most of these will link directly with
your TrainingPeaks account so you can see
the overall picture.
And fatigue can often show in signs of actually...
Like you mentioned earlier,
not sleeping very well, but also
if you're not having enough sleep
you could end up finding you're leading
towards fatigue as well.
- [male host] Another area is to monitor your heart rates
to see how your body is dealing
with the stress of training.
It's been used by athletes for years.
You simply take your heart rate
when you first wake in the morning.
You need to do this quite regularly, though
so you can find out, sort of, your baseline
normal resting heart rate.
And if you see a significant
increase in heart rate
you know that your body is working
harder than normal and potentially
trying to fight off an illness.
- You can take this a step further, actually
by measuring your heart rate variability
or HRV, as it's known.
Now this measures the difference in time
between each contraction, so between
each heart beat.
And if you do it consistently,
it's actually a really good marker
to show signs of fatigue, but you do need
a heart rate monitor specific for this.
Now the interesting thing about HRV
that actually, the lower the number
is actually a sign that it's bad
so you want to have a higher number
which shows better adaptation to your training
meaning, basically, you're in better shape.
- This is such a vast topic, and one that
we've really enjoyed looking into, actually.
There are loads of methods out there
to help prevent you from over training
and they're becoming increasingly more accessible.
- Now that doesn't mean though,
that you can forget about how you feel
and listening to your own body
so know what is normal for you
and it still makes up a large
part of the puzzle.
Now if you haven't done so yet,
and you want to subscribe, just hit the globe
and if you want some tips on how to fit
your training in around your work
and your busy life,
then there's a video on that just here.
- And to help prevent you from over training
why not check out our first triathlon training explained
show on structured training.
See that by clicking here.