Overtraining

Overtraining is a topical issue for us athletes at the moment, as most will have been training for a months in the build up to JWOC. While everyone is pumped and motivation is high to get out the door and run, it’s important not to flog the body. Being the fittest you can be at your race means that you need to at least be able to run- and being so shattered/injured that you can’t means you might as well have not trained. With that in mind, here is a little bit on over training.

Overtraining occurs when training beyond the ability of your body to recover. Thus without rest and recovery, hard and intense training (to try and win your race!) will actual backfire and decrease performance. When viewed in conjunction with the overload training principle there is a real risk that athletes will hit this ‘wall’. Orienteers are particular susceptible, as well as long distance athletes, due to the long and often monotonous hours of running.

Common warning signs include:

• Washed-out feeling, tired, drained, lack of energy
• Mild leg soreness, general aches and pains
• Pain in muscles and joints
• Sudden drop in performance
• Insomnia
• Headaches
• Decreased immunity (increased number of colds, and sore throats)
• Decrease in training capacity / intensity
• Moodiness and irritability
• Depression
• Loss of enthusiasm for the sport
• Decreased appetite
• Increased incidence of injuries.
• A compulsive need to exercise



The hard part is distinguishing between fatigue from just going for a run, the stage of your training programme at the moment, and overtraining symptoms.

A simple way to try and objectively measure this is by recording your heart rate over time. If your pace starts to slow, your resting heart rate increases, and you feel some of the above symptoms, you may be heading towards over training. Another important monitoring method is by recording your resting heart rate each morning- a noticeable increase from the normal might mean you aren’t fully recovered.

Heikki Rusko (while working with cross country skiers) designed a method to try and recognise overing training. It goes as follows:

1. Lay down and rest comfortably for 10 minutes the same time each day (morning is best).
2. At the end of 10 minutes, record your heart rate in beats per minute.
3. Then stand up
4. After 15 seconds, take a second heart rate in beats per minute.
5. After 90 seconds, take a third heart rate in beats per minute.
6. After 120 seconds, take a fourth heart rate in beats per minute.


Athletes who are well rested should have a consistent heart rate in all measurements, but Rusko found those with an increase of 10 bpm or more in the last measurement where on the verge of over training.


HR monitors can help

The best (and by far the simplest) method, is to take a moment and check for psychological signs/symptoms. Do you have decreased positive feelings for the sport? Increased negative feelings after/towards training? Increased perception of exertion during training?

Unfortunately, most of the warning signs often go unnoticed, and many athletes do burn out.

So find the balance between pushing the body and resting it. Don’t feel pressured to get out and train when you’re feeling buggered- the people hassling you aren’t going to suffer if you push yourself too hard, you will. Sometimes the best form of training is actually resting!

Peace out,

Andrew
"Note: some, possibly all of this might or might not be correct."