Overtraining Syndrome

I've been reading the greatest book ever written on Running, Tim Noakes' Lore of Running. In the 1980's, Noakes was one of the first scientists to understand overtraining in endurance athletes. There is a long, detailed section on overtraining in the 4th edition of Lore of Running. I think every ultrarunner should read this material. It includes a survey of all science on overtraining, detailed biographies of world-class endurance athletes with training logs, and a clear set of conclusions on overtraining - why it happens, the physiology of overtraining, and how to avoid it.

I will probably write several posts on what I've learned from this book. To start with, I'll summarize some of the signs of overtraining:

• increased resting heart rate, as measured first thing in the morning.
• Increased heart rate when running at a given pace
• "heavy legs" that don't feel better after a warmup period. Difficulty walking up stairs.
• Failure to recover from difficult workouts within 24-48 hours.
• Deep, persistent, muscle ache and soreness
• Increased susceptibility to infections and illness.

There are more signs of overtraining. Noakes covers the science and physiology of overtraining, including the search for a blood test that indicates an overtrained athlete. (There is no blood test that shows overtraining early enough to avoid it.) He discusses muscle biopsies of athletes that show different types of muscle damage on a cellular level and the length of times required to recover from that damage.

To avoid overtraining, Noakes shows, using scientific data, that variability in training is key. It is much better to run 100 miles per week by running 20 miles one day, 10 miles the next, instead of running 15 miles each day. It is much better to have hard days and easy days, than running at the same effort every day. He recommends one day of total rest per week. He also recommends a more significant taper before racing than most athletes accomplish.

Noakes also discusses the need to race infrequently. He has a table that shows how long you should wait for your next race based on muscle soreness in the two days following a given race. I recognize the symptoms and effects of overtraining in my own running over the past several years. One of my biggest problems is coming down with an illness in the week or two before a race. It turns out this is pretty common among athletes who are reaching beyond their fitness level and become overtrained.

World-class marathon runners can be most effective when training between 70 and 110 miles per week. Noakes includes a lot of data that shows this to be true. He also discusses chronically overtrained world record holders who ran best coming off an injury when they had enforced rest.

This year, I ran Laurel Valley two weeks before Cascade Crest. The week after Laurel Valley, I put in 70 training miles by running the same 10 mile workout every day. I came down with an upper respiratory infection almost exactly one week before CCC 100 and it spoiled my race.

This is just one recent example (not the most recent) of overtraining in my own experience. I now understand the reasons for some of the problems I have experienced. I have the psychology of an over-reaching athlete. That is, I tend to believe that my performances will improve if I increase the intensity and level of my training. I have experience that shows this to be the case. However, Noakes proves that an over-reaching athlete can perform better by avoiding over training. It is a complicated topic, I will discuss it further in the future.