Overtraining is a condition that will cause extreme fatigue, reducing performance, and burnout among runners and athletes.
SIGNS OF OVERTRAINING
1. Runners and athletes who push themselves too hard in their training are producing overtraining.
2. Runners and athletes who perform too long distances will produce overtraining as well.
Overtraining is a common issue, and it’s important to recognize the signs early to prevent injuries and setbacks.
CLEAR SYMPTOMS OF OVERTRAINING:
Persistent Fatigue: You’re always tired, no matter how much rest you get. Your body needs more time to recover from your workouts.
Decreased Performance: You’re not improving or even regressing in your workouts. You might also feel low energy and have difficulty maintaining your usual pace.
Mood Changes: You may feel irritable, depressed, or lose interest in your training.
Sleep Disturbances: Even though you’re tired, you might have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep.
Frequent Illness or Injuries: Overtraining can weaken your immune system, making you more susceptible to colds, flu, and other infections. You might also notice that you’re getting more injury symptoms.
Changes in Appetite: You may lose your appetite, or you might feel more hungry than usual.
Many runners think that feeling weak or not doing well is a sign that they need to train even harder, so they keep pushing themselves even further. This just worsens all the existing symptoms we were feeling from overreaching and leads to overtraining.
Overtraining can cause our athletic performance to decrease rather than improve.
Full recovery from overtraining might take weeks of rest, which can be especially difficult for runners and athletes.
8 SYMPTOMS OF OVERTRAINING FOR RUNNERS
Sleep issues
Thirst issues
Feeling slower and weaker
Aches and painsMental Burnout
Higher HR
Mood Swings
Loss of Appetite
1. Having Trouble Sleeping
If we are experiencing new sleeping issues such as insomnia, or restlessness when trying to fall asleep, then it may be a symptom of overtraining.
Poor sleep quality or inability to fall asleep quickly is a sign that our nervous system is on overload. Without regular sleep, the body cannot function to its full potential.
Regular, high-quality sleep stimulates muscle growth and repair and boosts the immune system.
2. You’re Super Thirsty All the Time
If we’re constantly thirsty or notice that our pee is dark yellow, that’s a sign of dehydration.
Under constant stress, the adrenal glands begin to release cortisol, the stress hormone. This is known as adrenal fatigue.
The exhausted adrenal glands can’t properly produce aldosterone, the hormone that regulates electrolyte and fluid levels, stimulating a demand for water.
A consequence of fasted running, or simply underfueling workouts, will affect the whole body.
Without proper hydration and fueling during times of intense training, the body has no other choice. Dehydration is one symptom that the body has no energy. Drinking electrolytes can help to improve hydration levels and helps the body maintain more water.
3. You Feel Slow and Weak During Workouts
A bad workout happens to us once in a while, will make us feel slow, weak, or missing time indicates fatigue. We’re likely not allowing enough time for our muscles to recover, not getting enough sleep, and not fueling properly.
Perhaps we aren’t taking our recovery runs easy enough.
There’s a reason most training plans only call for one to two hard sessions per week. The majority of our training runs should be easy efforts.
4. You Have Heavy Aches and Pains
If we have been feeling joint pain and other aches, it could be a sign that we’re overtraining. When our body is tired, we have sore muscles from running, and haven’t slept well in days, we’re more likely to fall out of good running form.
Running long term with poor form will affect an overuse injury from the repeated stress and strain.
If we’re not taking enough rest, we will find ourself forced into rest when we have a common running injury.
Training stresses the muscles to create microscopic tears in the muscle tissue. With proper rest, the muscle then repairs to build back stronger. However, running without the right recovery only cause more tears that lead to inflammation.
This is one reason we may not be losing weight despite increased exercise, our body has too much inflammation. Also, feeling sore all the time is a sign of overtraining.
5. You’re Experiencing Mental Training Burnout
There are always some days we don’t feel like working out. That is another symptom of overtraining, it can make us feel a high-level of depression.
Days and days of needing to forcefully drag ourself from bed because both a deep mental and physical fatigue is a sign of burnout. A sudden loss of enthusiasm for running is a clear sign of it.
6. Your Heart Rate is Abnormal
Both an elevated or reduced heart rate can indicate exercised-related stress. If our heart rate exceeds five to 10 beats per minute in either direction, then it could be time to take a rest.
Knowing our regular resting and maximum heart rate helps with recovery, performance, and reduces the risk of overtraining. If our heart rate is above normal in the morning, then we should take that as a sign to avoid a hard workout that day.
An elevated heart rate means that our body is releasing more oxygen to the brain and muscles as a result of stress hormones.
The best way to get to know our regular resting heart rate is by taking it first thing in the morning every day using our running watch, or a heart rate monitor. Checking for our heart rate variability is another indicator to know whether we are overtraining.
7. You’re Experiencing Mood Swings and Irritability
Our stress hormone levels can be affected by overtraining, which may result in moodiness, decreased motivation, and even depression.
This in turn can cause other health issues due to decreased immunity.
8. You’ve Noticed Changes in Weight or Appetite
Running and working out usually result in a healthy appetite. However, exercising too much can lead to a hormonal imbalance that affects extreme hunger.
Our testosterone levels can fall as our cortisol levels rise, causing a multitude of issues with protein metabolism, insulin resistance, and hunger.
Feeling a loss of appetite, experiencing sudden, unplanned weight loss, along with gastrointestinal issues like runner’s diarrhea may be a symptom we’re overtraining.
Getting the right nutrition, including the necessary micronutrients, vitamins, and minerals is essential for adequate recovery.
We should make sure we’re getting enough calories and nutrients. Our daily calories intake should meet our body’s requirements for training and muscle recovery.
Rest Days Can Prevent Overtraining
We should focus that rest days are part of our good training schedule.
As runners and athletes, we should know that rest days and easy running are important and super-efficient to support better training, better strength and good energy level. To add some rest days to our training schedule, it will increase our happiness and positivity, as we will feel much better and stronger.
Avoid Overtraining, Focus On Good Training Plans And Schedules, Nice Runs, Feel Better, Stronger, And Healthier!