070: Sneaky Signs of Overtraining

New year, new you!  It’s time to go all out on training.  You have signed up for a race and it’s approaching rapidly so you need to get your running cranked up.  Enthusiasm is great, but can lead to some major issues involving overtraining. In this episode let’s cover some signs of overtraining, how to avoid it, and how it may sneak up anyway.

Overtraining can pop up whether you are a new or seasoned runner and it’s signs can be subtle at first.  If you are not paying attention, you can find yourself wiped out and burnt out and probably hurt.

Some early signs to looks for include rating heart rate and generally how you feel on a run.  Keep daily track of your resting heart rate and notice if it seems like the number stays elevated for several days.  It will likely pop a bit after a hard workout, little sleep, or an extra drink or two on a night out, but will come back down.  When it does not come back for a few days, that is a sign to pull back.

The most subtle sign is being in touch with your body on a run.  If your legs feel like lead day after day, or the motivation seems to have disappeared, you could be overtrained.  This can also show up as a normal run, that just feels harder than it should. Also, maybe your run feels the same as always for a recovery run, but the pace is much slower than normal.  By tuning into your body, you can spots very early signs of overtraining.

Some less obvious signs are the mental ones.  If you find yourself with a constant short fuse with everyone and everything around you, it’s possible that you spent all of your mental capacity on the run, and have nothing left.  The same thing applies if you feel like you are walking around with a bit of a foggy brain.

The last couple of signs are the fairly obvious and the not so obvious.  First is the hard to deny injuries such as shin splints, runner’s knee, and plantar fasciitis.  Second, is just getting sick. You can blame travel, the cold weather, or visitors, but if you seem to always be going from one sickness to the next, you’re likely taxing your body so much through training, that the immune system cannot fight off any bugs coming your way.  

To avoid overtraining, keep three things in mind.  Listen to your body, rest and recover, understand safe changes in intensity.  Runners naturally tune out their body’s messages during a race to overcome pain and fatigue.  During normal training, tu

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Don't forget: The information on this website is not intended to treat or diagnose any medical condition or to provide medical advice. It is intended for general education in the areas of health and wellness. All information contained in this site is intended to be educational in nature. Nothing should be considered medical advice for your specific situation.