Athlete Highlight - Part 2: Taking a Break to Heal, Holistically.

If you missed the last blog post, please give Part 1 a read to learn about Amanda’s journey up to this point.

Connecting the Dots of Odd, Unpleasant Symptoms

When I asked Amanda how she discovered her diagnosis, she said…

“I’m still in denial sometimes and definitely grumpy about it.” 

Overtraining Syndrome (OTS) is really sneaky. One day she would run 15 miles and feel totally fine. Then at night she would experience full body hives out of nowhere. In hindsight, the first signs started showing up in January of 2023 -- her legs felt heavy, even after an off day, and she lacked her usual energy and motivation -- like a bad cold.

By March, she had mostly kicked the sickness when races picked back up. While the conditions were brutal, Amanda had a lot on the line for the team and thought it was worth it to prioritize racing over recovering considering it was the end of the season. It took the entirety of April to recover from the intensity of racing + feeling ill. Not surprising, she had low iron, B12, and vitamin D, so began supplementing to bring those back to healthy levels. Then summer came and she got sick again (June), and again (early August), got hives (end of August) and got sick again (mid-September).  There was never an ‘obvious’ injury in this timeframe, her blood levels had come back into range by July, and she was prioritizing sleep, nutrition, and had even dialed back the training compared to previous years. But unusual symptoms like insomnia, fatigue from walking up a flight of stairs and generally feeling pain and soreness regardless of the training schedule, all felt off and peculiar to Amanda and her coach. The last illness in September, which took her out completely for 2 weeks, was the tipping point.

Her new coach had experienced OTS himself and was starting to wonder if she may be going through a similar journey. In addition to her physical symptoms, she was dealing with high levels of stress from a full-time job, intense training, making decisions about her next steps and trying to find ways to enjoy life outside of her sport. With the help of the team doctor and her coach, they ultimately decided it was time for a full shut down: 2-3+ months completely OFF of training. Her activities were to be limited to easy walks and reading a book until her health was back under control.

Quick Note on OTS: “There’s a very thin line between functional overreaching in training (intentional stress to induce adaptation) and overtraining. The mental symptoms of OTS are often the discriminatory factor.” — Dr. Laura McDonald, OGX

Finding Support while Recovering

While she had certainly had her fair share of minor injuries, Amanda had never missed a ski season before this experience. So from sleep to nutrition to mental health and entertainment, figuring out how to live outside of a rigorous training routine was all new...and scary. 

Amanda’s support system in Bozeman was a huge part in figuring out how to navigate each day. She looked at this as an opportunity to spend time with friends and loved ones, exploring the city in ways she hadn’t had the chance to before. It also helped having a coach who had been through the recovery of OTS before who continues affirming her throughout the process today. Resting is the best thing she can do for herself in the long haul and trusting that she’s on the right track is all a part of their weekly check-ins.

Aside from these points, Amanda said she was most surprised by how much she’s been able to sleep. While training, she typically prioritized 8.5 hours in bed on a regular basis, but nowadays she’s consistently getting almost 10 hours in bed EVERY night. She’s also had to find new eating routines and ways to manage her nutrition for rest instead of endurance training. Knowing how important nutrition is, she was alarmed how easy it was to forget to eat when her appetite wasn't encouraged by big daily workouts. 

What she found most helpful with this transition was making sure she had tasty food in the house all the time, and communicating her nutrition goals to her partner (who's a fantastic cook) to help plan time to cook and grocery shop. Despite not having much of an appetite for the first time in her adult life, she made sure to hit all the major macronutrients at breakfast, lunch and dinner to make sure her body had the fuel to recover. 

When I asked her what she’s finding most difficult, she simply said “not training”. She’s been training for 13 years. A daily routine that gave her an outlet for her energy, releasing endorphins and just getting to move her body and be outdoors. Amanda says it took about 6 weeks to find a new normal while resting and recovering from OTS. Afraid of being bored and anxious of how she’d spend a newfound 20 hours/week, she now has found a groove that fills that time a bit more intentionally -- socializing with friends, tending to her plants and sleeping like a champ. It also took some serious personal restructuring to accept that a day with 10 hours of sleep and a short walk was just as productive (for now) as a day with a gym session, interval workout and packed work calendar.

Working Towards her Return

Although she’s estimating another 3 or more months until a full return, Amanda’s feeling optimistic now. She’s begun looking at moving her body as exercising instead of training -- meaning she doesn’t look at the stats of her movements and she’s learning to listen to her body about how she feels and what brings her joy.

“It’s still really scary.” Amanda says. She hasn’t seen anyone share their story of overcoming OTS and coming back to compete 100%. She knows she’s deviating away from her previous path of success and when the race season started it was brutal to watch people who she’s beaten out there competing. She knows she could be doing that and has to continue to remind herself that would only bring short term success. And that’s no longer the goal. Success is now getting healthy and crushing results for a full season. She also knows that training in the future will likely look different: prioritizing quality over quantity, being even more generous with off days and sleeping in.

Biggest Takeaways for other Athletes

Amanda’s raw emotions and vulnerability through her recovery have been so admirable to watch. She’s taking the unbeaten path and finding a way to balance her physical and emotional needs with her drive and goals to succeed as an elite athlete. None of this is easy.

When I asked her about what she’d like to share with other athletes who may be on their own path of recovery, she said…

• You’re 1 of 1. Don’t compare yourself to others and remember you’re on your own journey

• Your body doesn’t care where stress comes from -- it still impacts you and can make it harder to heal. So be aware of stress from all aspects of life (job, training, sleeping, eating, personal life, etc.) and give it the respect it deserves.

• Remove any expectation that if you’re training less you should recover faster…everything you do plays into recovery.

I’m so grateful for Amanda’s openness in sharing her story with me and all of you. Her recovery isn’t linear and none of us grow in a straightforward way. The ups and downs will always be there and I’m most proud of her for taking those in stride and continuing to believe in the long game.