Overtraining

We ask a fatigue specialist what bike-related burnout really means, and how to avoid it

- Steve Shrubsall

What, in a nutshell, is overtraining?

Traditionally overtraining has been defined as a prolonged impairment in an athlete’s performance lasting for several months despite reducing the workload. As the name suggests, the chronic reduction in performance is due to excessive training without enough recovery. However, more accurately, it is the state of chronic fatigue, and most of the time it’s chronic mental fatigue. Of course, you have to exclude any underlying disease or pathological condition, by a process of exclusion – and if you find nothing, the diagnosis is overtraining.

What causes this long-term fatigue?