Year long battle with Overtraining and little progress, I need some help!!!!

Also wanted to say that I have no plan to run anytime in the future, it isn't even a thought right now. If I did go out and try and run, I would be unable to walk back I believe. Getting back to feeling normal and doing my regular job is my main concern. A few people lately have told me I look wiped out, my eyes feel heavy and sag some. I think my main concern is if this is normal a year later. That is what I need some reassurance with because I don't know who to talk to about this. I have had to learn how to do with everything on my own this whole time. I have tried to go back to work on Navy ships climbing stairs in March/April and think that climbing may have set me back some because it caused worse soreness. I had no idea that would maybe set me back some. Since then, I have done no exercise.

Good luck in dealing with a difficult situation, and good job hanging in there for so long and still trying. Complex problems aren't resolved simply. Here is one aspect to educate yourself about, which may prove useful as part of a recovery process. You may realize that you've developed some physical habits which reinforce your stress and prevent a return to normal. Best to get formal guidance from a professional if you suspect things, though!

http://www.amazon.com/Recognizing-Treating-Breathing-Disorders-Multidisciplinary/dp/0443070539

http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/23948119/856437899/name/Breathing%20pattern%20disorders%20and%20physiotherapy.pdf

Sounds like me.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=4862484

Best of luck, it's hard to stay optimistic. It's a daily battle for me.

Your diet. Eat more carbs and protein.

Have you tried the antidepressant? It kinda sounds like you could benefit from talking with a psychiatrist (I'm completely serious on this).

My diet is fine, I eat plenty of protein and carbs. Savemeletsrun, I'll save your link and follow it. I'm not coming here looking for medical advice, strictly to see if others have had similar issues and get some help with my sanity. Unless you go thru or have gone thru something like this, you really can't understand what it's like. My health was perfect before I started running crazy amounts and did this to myself, that is one reason I believe it is overtraining or whatever the over stress term is. I quit pursuing doctors because I've read everything turns up negative. I still have a $1,500 doctor bill for the EMG last year.

Yep, it'll be a week tomorrow taking Wellbutrin. I've read antidepressants will help so I plan to take it for a month and see. I'm really okay with where I am, just ready to recover more and get back to feeling normal. I forgot what that was like, lol.

Need help bad wrote:

My diet is fine, I eat plenty of protein and carbs. Savemeletsrun, I'll save your link and follow it. I'm not coming here looking for medical advice, strictly to see if others have had similar issues and get some help with my sanity. Unless you go thru or have gone thru something like this, you really can't understand what it's like. My health was perfect before I started running crazy amounts and did this to myself, that is one reason I believe it is overtraining or whatever the over stress term is. I quit pursuing doctors because I've read everything turns up negative. I still have a $1,500 doctor bill for the EMG last year.

How do you know your diet is fine? What are you eating? Be specific

@OP, don't take antidepressants. I've seen some documentaries on netflix saying pills and stuff like that treat the symptoms instead of treating the reasons for the problems. That's why people stay on the stuff and never get better. A couple of good documentaries for you to watch would be Food Matters and Forks Over Knives. They're both on netflix. If you don't have netflix get the 1 month free trial or go to a friends' house that has it. Basically, what they say is that most diseases and cancers and such are caused due to bad diet. When people are sick and such, its because they eat junk food, meat, and processed foods. The documentaries, particularly the 2nd one, explain why. The optimal diet is fruit and vegetable plant based diet.

As to the over training, I have experience with over training. It got cured after a 2 week break and taking a long time to ease back into training slowly while I shook it. I had burnout for over a year and was depressed like you are. I'm currently a goofy happy guy that loves life. My advice, is to sleep more! At least 8 hours a day, when I was over training I was getting 4-6 hours a night.

As for the muscle soreness, you likely have muscle scaring from over stressing the muscles without allowing them to recover. I never have soreness. Wonder why? Cuz I'm flexible as all get out. I'm a guy and I can do the splits. I've hit myself in the forehead with my knee when doing russian marches

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec4jgO2Cb08

so yeah I'm flexible. What happens, is that when you're as flexible as me your muscles are too elastic so you have poor sprint speed, but because your muscles are so elastic they can take a lot of wear and tear and recover easily because running doesn't stretch them out far which doesn't put a lot of stress on them, so you don't get sore or injured. I got flexible after doing 60-80 minutes of stretching a day one summer. Now I only stretch 5-10 minutes a day, just enough to loosen the muscles out after my twice daily training runs, but because of the 60-80 minutes a day summer I'm stuck being flexible. My advice, is do a light aerobic warm up (10-20 min brisk walk or on stationary/exercise bike) to warm up muscles then do an hour of stretching that covers every muscle group multiple times as soreness and such can simply come from an imbalance. So you could target the quads and what not that are sore, but create an imbalance so something else gets sore. Just do an hour of stretching a day and get everything a bunch, I did 2 30-40 min sessions that one summer so it doesn't have to be all at once. If you don't know what to do for stretching, don't do with yoga, most yoga programs are too light. If you know someone who's a dancer or gymnast, they're extremely flexible and stretch a lot. My friend is on the dance team and says they stretch for over an hour at each practice before practicing their routines. So, ask someone like that for a 30-40 min stretch routine you can do twice a day 5 days a week and once on the weekends. Just do that until you lose your soreness. If you don't know someone like that, look up stretches on youtube or try to find some good yoga programs (P90X yoga is one of the better ones).

The diet aspect is for your overall health, stretching and sleep is for your physical health. I'm pretty sure if you follow this you'll be at least 90% in 3 months tops. At the most, in a year you'd be 100% again and maybe craving to go for a run. I would appreciate if you took the time to reply and let me know what you think. Thanks.

Savemeletsrun, what is your email address, we need to talk? To the others, I'll respond tomorrow. I feel like crap today and don't feel like responding. Probably going to ditch the Wellbutrin, I wonder if it is causing me to feel spacey and really weird today...

OP, I have posted my issues with overtraining and recovery elsewhere on the boards. Here is an overview:

I also was debilitated by overtraining for over a year.

Sophomore year of college I lost about 10 pounds from increasing my training volume, while simultaneously growing an inch or two. Over the course of the year, I dropped to as low as 108 pounds at 5' 9". My performances gradually began to crash as the year wore on. By the end of outdoor track, despite putting weight back on, I was severely fatigued throughout all of my training runs and daily activities. I'd liken the fatigue to brain fog, never feeling fully alert despite ample sleep and nutrition. I had no libido and began to feel very situationally depressed. I got blood tests, which revealed low testosterone levels and anemia. I began to train again that summer after testosterone and iron supplementation. Although my blood levels returned to normal, I still felt completely fatigued every day, all the time. Some days I was essentially bed-ridden. In August, I took two weeks off and began to build again. Despite the rest, upon returning I felt not better than I had before. Finally, at the end of October, after nearly 9 months of severe fatigue and subsequent depression, I decided to take two months completely off. I began "running" again on New Years Day, feeling slightly improved but still generally fatigued and miserable. Over the course of the next six months I GRADUALLY returned to running regularly. Throughout January I ran twice per week, one mile during each bout. By the end of May, I had gotten up to 10-15 miles per WEEK. Throughout this time, I gradually felt better and better, but still well below where I wanted to be. In June, I felt decent enough to push myself a little more and increased my miles throughout the summer enough that by September I was running 60-70 miles per week and racing, albeit racing severely out of shape. I'd still have days of terrible fatigue, brain fog, and depression, but they were less frequent. From my senior year xc season in 2010 til now, I have noticed improvements each week. Today, I feel 100% healthy, but it has been a VERY long process. 2 to 3 years. It took me til the summer of 2011 to consider myself "healthy".

There were many times when I doubted I would every feel normal again. I was nearly suicidal at times. I researched every possible cause of my malaise, from MS to CFS to Lyme. In the end, it turned out to be severe overtraining, as you likely have. Overtraining is a very real yet poorly understood illness. Just have faith that you will get better. A positive outlook can go a long way in your recovery.

Two things I recommend:

1) When you think you are ready to exercising again, take another week off, then start up. Build back slowly into training for the next six months. You need to give yourself a chance to recover. 12 months off now is worth it in the long term.

2) Buy a calendar and keep track of how you feel every day so you can monitor your progress. I used a check minus-minus, check minus, check, check plus, check plus-plus system. Do whatever works for you. It really helped me. I even made graphs.

Hang in there; life will get better.

Yeah I have posted on SAVEMELETSRUN forum and I had something very SIMILAR to you. I ran an entire cross country season still feeling the affects of overtraining. I would recommend stop all running and start walking/hiking and lifting weights. You have dug a huge hole and it will take lots of time to get out. I don't believe all the ailments associated with OT are physical and there is likely a mental aspect (obviously). That is why taking 12 months off from running like one poster said might be a positive thing, to help the physical/mental problems. Running should not be the focus of your life, if it is causing you issues and stress then it should be put to the side. I have been out of college for a few years and I feel completely normal. I am not the same hill runner I was before I was overtrained but I think some of that is mental. Anyway, the best you can do is relax, walk/hike/lift, stretch, read and focus your energy on other aspects of your life. You will not die and you will run again, it just might take some time.

How about you get rid of those tightly whities and put on some big boy boxers? Then rock the boxers as you finally confess so that you can have it off your conscience for good. It's painful to watch you slowly die. I love you. please Pick up your balls dear.

Thanks man! Is there any way you can give me your email? I have a few specific questions. I really wanted to find someone who could relate because I need to know what to do with a few things, please.

And your the kind that gives Letsrun a bad name. Your probably some college athlete living with and being supported by your parents, grow up.

This sounds similar to what I experienced.

I started running in 2006. By summer 2008 I was running ~50 miles/week and regularly doing long runs of 15-20 miles. In September 2008 I started feeling exhausted during my runs. It was an extreme fatigue which made it feel like I had run 15 miles when I had only finished 2. The exhaustion got so bad that I became unable to run, and stopped running completely.

I took 8 months off before I felt ready to give running another try. I was able to run again but SLOWLY and I was very out of shape. But I built it back up, and slowly crept back into the 40-50 mile/week range. However, after a few months the fatigue returned, and once again I was forced to take more time off.

A pattern ensued where I would take time off, get back into running, build my mileage back up, and then the fatigue would return. This became unbearably frustrating as I had some lofty running goals. I was also concerned that I had some type of health issue causing this fatigue. I went to an internal medicine doctor who ran every exam imaginable. Everything came back normal.

Finally a sports medicine doctor suggested it might be overtraining- I wasn't taking many recovery days or cutback weeks. I was just running long/slow miles as much as I could.

I made some drastic changes to my training. I cut my mileage down to ~25 miles/week. I'm now taking 2-3 full days off/week, and also cutting back mileage 1 out of 4 weeks. I've added a bunch of quality workouts like tempo runs and intervals.

For the last 6 months my running has been GREAT and I'm reaching those peak levels of 2008.

Good luck!

Thanks so much for the words. I just have a hard time understanding how a year later, I'm not much better. It makes me wonder if I need more time or if I'm missing something. I will say my diet has been poor as far as nutritious foods, I've been eating a lot of processed stuff only because I haven't felt like cooking at all. I've read that calorie intake is very important so I've made sure I was eating at or above maintenance calories. I've put on 5 or 6 pounds since a year ago and I want to lose it but then, not sure if dieting some is a good idea. Somedays, I don't know what to do, like the other poster above I just want to lay in bed all day but I can't take naps right now, can't shut my mind down.

Hey man. Didn't bother reading everyone else's posts but I went through something very similar.

-Took 1.5 years off from running. It was my passion and it was taken from me

- During my runs I felt extremely heavy. I went from being able to go for an easy 10 miles at 7 minute pace. To not

being able to run 15 minutes at 8:50 pace.

- Everyone said I was fine and just out of shape...I

almost started believing them...almost stopped running for

life and just spend my time in the weight room...

- (Let me remind you this was not entirely from an injury

...mainly from a life event)

I will not get into details about my life but here are some tips.

- Be patient but PERSISTENT. I Am not patient so this

was very tough...I was more on the persistent side.. I FORCED MYSELF TO GO ON RUNS. Maybe not everyday but it was literally the hardest part of my day when I would.

- Don't settle for the medication if you do not see

it helping or it has a negative impact. Medication can really EFF you up. Be assertive and tell your psychiatrist

running is a long term goal and want it to be part of my life (if they say that cant happen and your stuck with certain meds....get a new psychiatrist)

- FAIL. But do not let it stop you. When you get through this you will view life through a different lens and be essentially "reborn" -- You won't take thing for granted.

I'll give you the afterwords of hitting ROCK BOTTOM in my life.

I hit bottom and started recovering (was barely running and spent most of my time in the weight room...if i was working out at all). Soon I started feeling "normal" again....that word is your least favorite when your in the "valley". Soon...you will become stronger, and wayy more confident. You'll see people for who they really are and almost pity those who have "cake-walked" through life.

Upon feeling normal I started training. 3 months in I was a little shy of my PEAK my best year of running (when I broke multiple school records//MVP//...my best wasnt a joke). I still run for fun...only for fun. People always ask me why I don't join my colleges team (I would be in the middle-top of the pacK) and I just say I enjoy being unattached and my own coach..

Maybe in a couple years I'll join a legit team. But for now I run for the relief. It reminds me everyday where I have been and where I am going.

If you have any questions let me know. I'll try to follow this thread. You are in hell right now. No doubt about it. The pain will subside. Good luck.

Thanks for the words. I went thru a few pain pill withdrawals in my past and as bad as they were, they haven't compared to the emotions this has been, probably due to the length of time. But then again, I remember a lot of times when I was running tempo runs and long runs clearly when I wasn't recovered. When I say most people aren't as stupid as I was, that is the truth. I should have rested as soon as sleep problems started in 2011 as my legs only got worse as I continued running on them. I kept denying the idea I was running too much, I guess it sort of made me feel better about justifying my running. I appreciate all the posts in here, kinda makes me feel I'm not alone and crazy. I just hope my quads finally recover and I get my motivation back real soon.