Overtraining

Question
Hi, sorry this is quite long, I have a few questions, but 1st here's a bit about me. I'm 16 years old and have stopped school to become a professional cyclist. I live in south africa and was one of the top U17s this year. Next year I will be a junior and am already on the national team for junior world champs. I am a pure climber and have great natural endurance, im strongest in tours and when im older i aim to make my name as a tour rider. People often tell me that I overtrain, though. they say at 16 i shouldn't be doing 220km rides, is their any danger of me burning myself out like this? if i overtrain now is it possible that i will 'burn out' before i reach 30? my 3rd question is on blood tests; i see a lot of guys going for blood tests every now and then, not for doping, but to see how strong their body is. i know they test haematocrit, but what else do they test? what tests can i do to find out my natural capabilities or what level my body is capable of reaching? any help appreciated, thanks

Answer
Hi Ryan,

Are you getting tutoring to finish school? If not the do it ASAP. It sounds like you are well on your way to become a pro cyclist. There is always a danger of burning yourself out or getting some type of injury or something that can ruin any athletic career, so Get a good solid education to have something to fall back on. Look at Saul Raisin as the perfect example, high profile excellent rider who looked to be a real up and comer until an accident that basically put him out of professional cycling. Now he is doing lots of Charity Rides and such and helping a lot of people, but his racing days are over.

Hematocrit is simply the volume of red cells in the blood and will not tell you how strong you are. Hematocrit can be used indirectly to see if you need to be checked for things like Iron Deficiency The most likely blood test would be testosterone levels, and growth hormone levels. These don't tell you how strong you are but do tell you your muscle building ability, sort of. Another test they may be getting is Estrogen levels. Higher Estrogen levels will prevent the muscle building, higher testosterone and HGH levels usually mean that you are building more muscles.

Lance Armstrong trained between 7 and 8 hours a day. Who are the people telling you you should not be riding so much or are overtraining? Are they pro cyclists, or coaches of pro cyclists?
You should go by the opinions of people that know, such as cycling coaches and pros. If they say you are overtraining then maybe you are. 16 does seem a little young to be riding that much, but a lot is determined by your goals and your  own strengths as well as weaknesses.

To me it sounds as if you should first concentrate on getting an excellent education,but you can also work on your cycling at the same time. Einstein was a cyclist and it is said that he came up with the theory of relativity while riding one morning. No reason you can't do both.

Will you burn out by 30? No way to tell. You may never "burn out" you may before you are 20, god only knows.

Hope this helps

Have a great day

Jerry