Windsurfing/Running/Cycling and overtraining

I have a question for any serious runners or cyclists who windsurf. I live on Maui and windsurf everyday for about 1 1/2 hours straight. For about 3 months I've been running about 25 miles a week and cycling about 30 miles a week as part of a personal fitness/weight-loss program. This is in addition to windsurfing every day. I also train with weights 4 times/week. I've gone from weighing a disgustingly flabby 210 lbs down to a semi-ripped 168 lbs. My goal is my high-school weight of 150-160. I feel great but don't want to burn out and gain the weight back.

I'm training for an upcoming 5K and a duathlon (3k Run/10k Bike/3k Run).

Would my situation be considered 'overtraining' with the windsurfing? Is there anyone else out there training for a running race, triathlon, or bike race in addition to windsurfing daily?

I am open to advice. Thanks.

No but I'd say it's a bit misplaced. Just drop the weight training, cycling, and running, and up your sailing to 8 hours a day.

avoid humdrum but difficult training. This allows you to gain the additional benefit of scheduling your training to peak for certain events year round.

You sound like a perfect candidate for a heartrate monitor. As you train to loose serious amounts of fat and to build muslce mass, it's difficult to measure your body composition with just a scale. More muscle, more weight, less fat, less weight. There is a point where your fat goes nowhere and neither do your muslces. This is the point where you MUST increase caloric intake to allow your muscles to heal after workouts rather than fight for every calorie just to keep your switch in the 'on' position. Most people then start to really watch caloires and add them in measured doses. The heartrate moniter comes in to help you understand where in your sub maximal range yor workouts should fit, and for how long.

Matching your cardio exercise with your quantified caloric intake prevents injury and overuse. Again, not that you suddenly can't complete your workouts or even work out just as hard, its merely that your gains will become smaller and smaller well before you reach your body's maximum capabilities. You might otherwise get stuck in a cycle of needing to work harder for less and less. If your final 20% comes at point X in your workout life, you don't want to start creeping forward in your gains too early.

Plus, the monitor is awesome for cycling as it allows you to really understand how hard you are working in a particular gear with certain RPMs. Everybody counts RPMs, but the real benefits come from matching RPMs to BPMs.

Check out the Polars. They are really good. http://www.polar-heartrate-monitors.com/

Also, consider varying your ratio of activities to fit your event schedule. Cross training is great, but it doesn't hold a candle to training in your primary sport. Ratchet each up and down throughout the year. Also, you can take a few days off. Take only a 2 mile walk in the am and see how you feel on that day of rest. I bet you first day back to regular training will be full of energy.

Congrats on dropping the pounds, but keep at it. You live in a great place to stay fit.

-Dan

You don't give your age or other pertinent information, but rest assured that the level of training you are doing would be considered 'time off' by most top level athletes. On the other hand, burn out or overtraining is a real possibility at a much lower level of exertion, depending on your previous physical condition, age, etc.

Best to watch for early signs and back off before you over do. Signs include a general lethargy and lack of motivation to train, aches and pains that weren't there before, colds and illness, trouble sleeping, etc. When you're overtraining, your times for running or cycling a fixed distance will start to creep up, and you'll begin to feel you're working harder to go slower. So long as your times remain the same or improve, and you generally feel good, you're probably not nearing burn out.

Frank Weston

John,

First, let me say that I am not a health professional.

The key is that you've been doing it for 3 months and feel great. That fact alone says that you are not over doing most of it. The only concern is dropping 40 lbs in 3 months. For the time being I suggest that you forget about getting to your high school weight and let your body adjust to this, which is not far off. BTW, you may now have more muscle mass than when you were a kid so, infact, you may have already achieved this goal. Don't forget that some of the 'flab' you may now see is merely loose skin that need a while to tighten up.

you're right frank. i'm far from being an elite athlete and you put it all in perspective for me!! that my training is a 'walk-in-the-park' for a top athlete! imagine that. and i thought i was 'over-training!'

That's a lot of weight loss in short time and quite some activity. Seems you enjoy yer regained(?) fitness.

Seems reasonable for first competition runs. Maybe even a bit short but then you don't need or want to win anything in a 'first'.

Windsurfing daily just happens in vacations for me and then all day long which would exclude running. I would also not do any really hard running (longer than 15 miles or speed training) on windsurfing days but occasionally i end a windsurfing day by a run around the lake (about 13 km / 8 miles) at a moderate pace (around one hour for me but thats a very personal thing, most people would consider that race pace or faster while for som it's merely jogging...). When really training for running, i've not windsurfed too much, except maybe one week of windsurfing vacation about 4 weeks before a marathon this spring, where i reduced running to some short runs and two long ones on skunk days. Figure it cost me the minute and half i was missing on a sub-3 hour time but the shredding was more worthy to me. Generally i'd say that as long as you generally feel fresh and not too tired when starting exercise and have the occasional day off from running, your overall amount of exercise is fine. Just be carefull not to overdo speed when running and not to increase your running milage too fast since that calls for orthopedic trouble: Your cardiac fitness and muscles are way more easily trained and adapted to running than your joints and tendons.

good advice ben thanks

RE/

Are you jumpier than most? More irritable? Do noises bother you more than most? Do you injure easily?

Those there the main symptoms that I see (in retrospect) of my several years of overtraining.

Check resting pulse rate first thing each day. If you see it noticeably increase, beware. Difficulty sleeping is reported as well.

Consequences of ignoring overtraining:

Loss of performance and injury, taking weeks? to recover.

On the other hand, if you've spent the preceding years doing nothing at all, then you can overtrain due to not having enough base fitness to support higher intensity workouts even if they aren't all that impressive to pro athletes. 12 weeks is a bare minimum for base fitness in cycling or running so it's possible to get in trouble if you start from absolute zero especially with everthing else you've got on your fitness plate. If you plan to just cruise in your races and not max out you probably don't have much to worry about, but if you're introducing intervals and sprints in cycling and running, backing off in the other sports will make it easier to recover. Rest and recovery is training too don't forget.