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Hunter Allen writes:
Overtraining is defined as excessive training characterized by long-lasting fatigue, and worsening of competitive performance with further attempts to improve condition. It may also be described as staleness, over-work, over-reaching, burn-out and chronic fatigue. As a runner, your improvements hinge on progressively increasing the training load. This concept is different from overtraining, in which a vicious circle develops with more training producing lower performance and chronic fatigue.
How many times have you, in your zeal to improve, gone out and run harder than you know you should have? The legs were still tired from the past weekend’s runs and even yesterday’s easy recovery run, but, you are excited about that upcoming 10K and want to set a PR. So, off you go running but you can’t go quite as fast as you want to and the speed workouts seem more like the way your grandmother used to drive in the left lane on the highway. You are now feeling overtraining coming on stronger than a ’68 Buick in the left lane.
Now, the question is: How do you train hard and still make gains, but not get into the downward spiral of overtraining?
Well, in order to answer that, we need to examine the definition of overtraining more thoroughly. In the above definition, overtraining is long-lasting fatigue and worsening of competitive performance. So, you must recognize the difference between the fatigue of yesterday’s run and the leg-deadening fatigue of the accumulation of the past months’ worth of runs.
This is not an easy thing to do, but it is made easier through experience, the use of a heart rate monitor and the recognition of the symptoms of overtraining.
Here are the main symptoms of overtraining that you should look for and then compare them to the normal feelings that you experience after a hard workout.
Now that you know what overtraining is and the symptoms, you now must get a better idea of how to avoid it. Remember, you still must train hard and push your body in order to improve. The basic principle of training is Stress + Rest = Maximum improvement. Therefore, stretch yourself on training runs, but don’t go overboard. Here are a few recommendations to help avoid overtraining and immune-suppression:
Good luck in your training in the next couple of months and keep that goal in front of you and with the proper training, rest and nutrition, you will make it! Go for it!
Make it a healthy day.
1. Overtraining, Muscle Damage and Immune Function, Dr. Michael Glesson. Sport Nutrition Insider Vol. 5, #4 1-3, Nov. 1997
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