Signs of Overtraining
To an increasing degree over the past month, my legs feel sore/heavy at the beginning of rides. I sometimes also get a cold sweat; again, more so at the beginning of rides. Also getting lots of night sweats and the perspiration has had that sickly sweet smell. I've also noticed that my HR doesn't climb as quickly or as high in response to hard efforts. This all strikes me as classic overtraining signs.
The problem is that I've been steadily cutting back volume and adding off days during this same period. In mid-May, I felt great and did really well on our hilly, 30-plus mile training race. The next week, felt terrible, barely finished the ride. I blamed that on my Covid shot, but things have not improved since. I've cut back on volume, added rest days (2-3 per week), tossed a complete off week in there in mid-June. To make up for lost volume, I've increased intensity (AC/NM intervals) and added lower body weights back in (which I had been doing until late-May). That made my legs so sore I could barely walk last week. I also gained about ten pounds during this time and, while that has levelled off over the past two weeks, I'm not losing much despite being disciplined with my training diet.
My question is, should I take a longer time off the bike? Should I go back to more volume/Zone 2-3 training and cut most of the intensity for now? This is somewhat frustrating since races are finally starting to appear on the calendar and I feel that my winter/spring training has been for naught.