Recognising Burnout, what exactly is it

harringtonp

Hi Guys,

Suffered a big dip in training after the festive period and have been unable to pinpoint exactly why so thought I'd throw this out to see what comes back.

Since October 2012 have completed six 11 week structured blocks of HIT with the last one being just before xmas (did 3 last year, 2 year before). Blocks mostly consist of 3 weekly sessions with intervals from 2 to 12 minutes and a club spin on a Sunday. In between blocks still got out on the bike but just stayed away from structure and with the exception of last summer all others were done in the off season.

Deliberately ignored "base periods" for a variety of reasons and have worked on the assumption that won't suffer burn out as overall training volume is low. Every month for the last 2 years has seen between 20 and 30 hours total on the bike (which comparatively speaking is low IMO).

After finishing the last block just before xmas had a week with absolutely no exercise followed by a week with some unstructured lower intensity spins. Tried to start a new block in the first full week in January but abandoned first 2 sessions after falling well short of what would normally be hard but well attainable target wattage. It was as if I was a bit sick except felt completely fine in everyday life.

Then decided to abandon the 11 week block and let January become a lower intensity maintenance month and am beginning to see form come back a bit though not quite to pre-xmas levels yet.

Generally through the 11 week blocks I've seen small but continual improvement , the one exception was the block before xmas where I struggled for a couple of weeks in the middle of it (abandoned some sessions) but then finished that block quite strong.

Is this likely yo be a subtle form of burnout do yous think ?

Thanks

pedro_colnago

Are you mentally fried from the bike? Usually that's the first sign. Wintertime can be hard enough to put the gear on and maybe your a bit mentally burnt out from it. The body usually follows. You seem to be fairly regimented in how you train and maybe u need a couple of weeks off to recharge the batteries. Ul get the fitness back in no time.
Also ur average speeds would tend to be slower this time of year so maybe that might be a factor in how ur training stats are adding up.

harringtonp

pedro_colnago wrote: »

Are you mentally fried from the bike? Usually that's the first sign. Wintertime can be hard enough to put the gear on and maybe your a bit mentally burnt out from it. The body usually follows. You seem to be fairly regimented in how you train and maybe u need a couple of weeks off to recharge the batteries. Ul get the fitness back in no time.
Also ur average speeds would tend to be slower this time of year so maybe that might be a factor in how ur training stats are adding up.

Yes do get fed up with the same old routine and the thought has occured to me that the enjoyment needs to come back into it but that is much easier in summer than winter.

I don't bother with speeds as it is wattage I monitor and the nose dive occured on the turbo as well as outdoors.

pedro_colnago

harringtonp wrote: »

Yes do get fed up with the same old routine and the thought has occured to me that the enjoyment needs to come back into it but that is much easier in summer than winter.

I don't bother with speeds as it is wattage I monitor and the nose dive occured on the turbo as well as outdoors.

No I'm just using average speed as an example same as heart rate or wattage, different external conditions such as stress, weather, more gear etc would effect your output. Listen to your body. IMO people can get a bit too hooked up on stats. I don't need my power meter to tell me I'm tired but the power meter does confirm it tho. It does the same when I'm in good shape, just confirms it.
It's early in the year to be getting fried tho and it's a long enough season.