Excessive Intensity = Reduced Sleep?

Aztec

I rode w/ a much more fit rider yesterday for a little over an hour. My HR was between 165 and 188, most of the time more like 175. This was definitely my biggest effort since picking up the bike this season.

Then I had a very tough time sleeping. Got a fitful 5 or so hours rather than my usual 7+. I've noticed this happens when I hit the squat rack exceptionally hard as well.

Others experience the same thing?

visual_infinity

YES, I have noticed reduced sleep and I have a simple life at the moment so I can only assume it is the cycling thats doing it.

Jonathan

J-MAT

Aztec:

Exercise will help you sleep, but too much will stress your body and your sleep will suffer.

You are lifting and riding which is taxing your bodies recovery ability, especially the kidneys and liver. They have to filter and detoxify the waste produced from your workouts, in addition to performing "normal" life functions.

Additionally, lots of adrenaline/epinephrine is released on hard rides/workouts which will increase your metabolism and heart rate while you try to sleep, making for a restless night. A hard ride can be like drinking coffee as far as sleep goes.

When you are sick or ill you don' sleep well either. When you push very hard it is a form of a temporary illness. Your body is trying to return to normal after being pushed to it's limits, just as when fighting a virus or whatever.

Too many hard workouts without enough recovery will get you overtrained. Poor sleep is one of the symptoms of being overtrained. 7 hours is not enough for non-athletes, which means you need at least 8+ hours every night.

Get more sleep!!!

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Aztec

There's a big difference between a tough ride and chronic overtraining. I'm miles from being systemically overtrained, even if yesterday's effort was excessive. But I definitely need more sleep than last night's pitiful 4 - 5 hours.

J-MAT

Aztec:

One tough ride is not chronic overtraining, but it is the start of it if insufficient recovery and additional stress factors are present like weights and insufficient sleep.

Riding and lifting tax your bodies recovery a lot. Only getting 7 hours is not enough. I'll bet if you took 1-2 weeks off the squats, you would increse your pounds/reps from what you are doing currently, especially if you are lifting higher poundages.

The bigger/stronger your legs are the more waste they generate. Unfortunately, the kidneys do not increase in size or in filtering efficiency as you get bigger/stronger.

When you small and weak, you might only generate 50 "units" of waste, when your kidneys can easily filter 100 "units" of waste per day. After you get big, you might start generating 150 units of waste from the weights, which will start to burden the kidneys. Riding on top of that might generate another 100 units of waste. Of course, the kidneys can still only handle 100 units a day, which makes for the beginning of systemic fatigue.

The important thing here is that muscle growth wil only take place after systemic recovery has taken place. Muscle growth is the last part of recovery. If you are never fully recovered, you will never achieve maximum strength/performance gains.

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Aztec

J-Mat (no relation to J-Lo?),

Like I said, I'm way far from overtraining. I haven't squatted in 1.5 weeks already (knee annoyance), and I do hip belt squats which are only about 70% as much drain on your system since your upper body isn't involved. I focus on recovery, and if anything, UNDERtrain because of that paranoia. I likely won't ride again until Weds, and lift on Thurs.