Problems with recovery and delayed onset fatigue

[bbrauer]

Let's see if anyone can give some input on this question? I have a friend I coach/give training advice to who offers some particular challenges to traditional training schedules. Specifically, she finds that she's the most tired and sore several days after a hard effort. This makes scheduling intensity sessions with adequate rest in between difficult if not impossible. As it stands, she essentially races MTB on a weekend and spends the rest of the week recovering for the next race. It seems to me she could improve a great deal with some mid-week structured training, or any structured training.

I'm thinking there might be a nutrition deficiency that might contribute to her difficulty recovering. I'd almost suggest trying the anti-oxidant regime I take and the glutamine supplementation I've been using with pretty good success.

Thoughts?

 

[Ergoman]

Let's see if anyone can give some input on this question? I have a friend I coach/give training advice to who offers some particular challenges to traditional training schedules. Specifically, she finds that she's the most tired and sore several days after a hard effort. This makes scheduling intensity sessions with adequate rest in between difficult if not impossible. As it stands, she essentially races MTB on a weekend and spends the rest of the week recovering for the next race. It seems to me she could improve a great deal with some mid-week structured training, or any structured training.

I'm thinking there might be a nutrition deficiency that might contribute to her difficulty recovering. I'd almost suggest trying the anti-oxidant regime I take and the glutamine supplementation I've been using with pretty good success.

Thoughts?

I'd guess that if she needs a whole week to recover between races, she's racing at a level beyond her ability and/or that she's suffering from a motivational problem (which could be as a result of being sore all week, which could in turn cause a lack of motivation). Maybe the solution is to rachet down on the training and racing.

Be careful. Loss of motivation is the one sure thing that will end an athlete's career, and as far as I know, there's no nutritional supplement that provides it.

 

[bikerboy]

Dalayed onset fatique is a sign of very long term parasympathetic overtraining which can be compounded by not eating enough. I'm not saying she is extremely overtrained, but I know thats one symtom because I researched this a lot. Last year when I was fatiqued I noticed I would do a hard ride and couldnt recover from it, I was always *****ing about not being able to train and everyone around me said it was "a lack of motivation" If I rested up, all the problems would go away.

I was living race to race, and that seems like what she's doing. I bet if she took some time off the racing and riding, like a couple weeks, then started doing easy base miles at around 150 watts, gradually increasing intensity, she would rebound and be able to race to no end.