Overtraining syndrome — completely wrecked

I will toss in my experience.

2019 I was stressed finishing grad school and trained a fair amount in late 2018, early 2019. By late April/early May I couldn't function. Running was impossible, felt tired all the time but sleeping did nothing, and it felt like acid was running through my veins. I remember just bending my fingers didn't feel right. I got an iron test and was told to take pills, however I was lucky enough to have had an iron test the year prior and noticed the following curiosity:

2018 vs 2019:

Iron Binding Capacity: 365 vs 311 15% Decrease

Iron: 138 vs 60 56% Decrease

Iron Saturation: 38 vs 19 50% Decrease

Transferrin 260.9 vs 222 15% Decrease

Ferritin: 36.2 vs 55.2 50% increase

Not a doctor--so definitely speaking out of my element, but the increase in ferritin was interesting as it can used a a marker for infection or inflammation. Your body holds on to it to try and starve something out. My first doctor wrote me off, but I did manage to find a physician assistant who actually listened to what I had to say and agreed to run more tests if I didn't feel better in a few weeks. I never followed up because life got in the way, but anyways, my suggestion would be to take all you rounds of bloodwork and compare the values. See if you can find any meaningful percent of change.

In my case once the weather got colder I finally started to feel better. By mid-October 2019 I was able to run again. Exploring some cold therapy options is at least worth a look.

Also have you changed living situations before the onset of symptoms? One year a very talented runner I coached had a horrible track season, but he turned everything around the following fall after moving back home with his parents. During that previous year he was living in a run down college house which could have had god knows what growing in the walls.

Hope you feel better and would love updates if you are able to turn the corner.

A few years ago I was training for Paris marathon. I was trying to lose weight at the same time. Everything was going well until about 5 weeks before the race, when the wheels absolutely fell off.

I was running to work in the morning, then not eating until lunch. I think that is what really did it for me.

I ran my marathon 30 minutes slower than expected (walk/run), then basically felt like crap for a year. I hardly ran for the rest of the year, I just felt lethargic and weak. I would be interested to know what my Cortisol was at the time, I would guess that it was way too high.

Been dealing with overtraining syndrome for the past four months. Besides rest, does anyone else have any tips that help speed up the recovery process?

I think eat enough and have a full blood panel done. This thread already has good advice for you.

I have increased calorie intake and gained weighed. I am sleeping longer. I am taking supplements. I have had a full blood panel done multiple times and everything comes back clean.

I took two weeks off completely from running. I went for a 12 mile run yesterday and it was bad. My legs are physically in pain. They are worse than before the two week break.

Has anyone experienced pain in their legs with OTS?

Bump

For the people in this thread who think they had “chronic fatigue” and POTS just fyi you might actually have Lyme and co-infections like Bartonella, Babesia, Ehrlichiosis, etc. Lyme is most commonly misdiagnosed as cfs, and it and Bartonella actually cause POTS. You can get bit by a tick and never even see it, they can be smaller than a poppy seed.

Lyme is in every single state and even co-infections like Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever are showing up on the East Coast now, there was an article in the WSJ recently about this.

Testing for Lyme is notoriously inaccurate - you can test negative through the ELISA test and still have Lyme. Testing for the co-infections is even worse. I suggest you find a LLMD through

ILADS.org

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Utimize Support

ILADS is a nonprofit, international, multi-disciplinary medical society, dedicated to the diagnosis and appropriate treatment of Lyme and its associated diseases.

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and have a Western Blot test done through Igenex Labs or Armin.

Borrelia (Lyme bacteria) can literally drill into bone and hide out in the body and evade the immune system for years, and yes you can run with it and not even know it until your body just crashes. That’s what happened to me.

rawlsmd.com

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@rawlsmd

Get information from Dr. Bill Rawls about Lyme disease, fibromyalgia, Chronic Immune Dysfunction, herbal therapy, and much more.

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that’s a great site, he has a book too called Unlocking Lyme

There have been multiple high profile lawsuits lately about patients who were misdiagnosed, and a couple of recent memoirs too.

a decent watch will tell you pretty much everything about your sleep including Heartrate, HR Variability, REM sleep, deep sleep, number of restless moments etc

Dude, when you come back from overtraining, don't start out with a 12-mile run. Start with 2 and see how it goes, then try 3, and so on. And be extra cautious that you don't hit the edge again, unless you want to lose months of training.

I had OTS for several years. The answer for me was eating more. A lot more. It was really challenging. I still have days or a week where I have to back-off and eat more. That is been the solution for me.

I highly recommend getting a full blood panel done. Low iron or even thyroid could be linked to chronic underfueling. Give yourself a lot of time. Eat a lot of protein and carbs.

Aerobic Deficiency Syndrome is also common and relative to your situation. Much more information available on this topic. Several elite level trail runners had this issue, over training and ADS resulting from.