Overtraining

DCtoPgh — Sat, 03 May 2008 21:08:39 GMT

In my very first blog post I promised, in other words, to post the good, the bad, and the ugly. So, here's the ugly.

After the end of a CRAZY semester, I hit the ground running. I couldn't wait to get back into training. I went from monthly mileage of 20 miles (read another post about a near-amputation and pneumonia) to 80 miles in April. Now 80 miles a month isn't anything so spectacular, but I made the mistake of forgetting to put it in perspective. Last Tuesday I went for a 5 mile run and BONKED. Bonked like I have never bonked before. I ran about 2.5 miles (thankfully I was on a treadmill) and I felt worse than I did at mile 25 of a marathon. I didn't have the energy to walk or stretch. I took the elevator up one floor to my condo, I grabbed a banana and I laid on the ground. It was PATHETIC (and no, I'm not the type to be unduly hard on myself, it really was a disaster).

That day I was also the most irritable I had been in YEARS. I'm a sunshine, happy kind of person. I'm that obnoxious friend who always looks for the silver lining. Yes, some could even call me perky. But not on Tuesday. I was cranky. I was bitter. On Wednesday I went shopping with a friend (another psychologist) and as we were driving and I was cursing at drivers, she had the courage to say, "It sounds like you have a lot of anger today" in perfect therapist speak. She was right and that made me even more mad. Later that day I had the pleasure of catching up with a friend from college:

Jake: Hey! How are you?!

Me: Eh. I'm pissy. I'm in a bad mood.

Jake: What? Are you allowed to do that?!

Yes. On Tuesday and Wednesday I was allowed to do it. I did it rather well in fact. I hated being in such a bad mood, but nothing (not even running! ) could break me out of my funk. Add to this the fact that I was EXHAUSTED. And anxious. My heart was pounding out of my chest, just racing. I couldn't relax, even when I was going to sleep (and I am a champion when it comes to sleeping). I realized that for the last few days I'd been sleeping terribly, having a hard time going to sleep and waking up in the middle of the night. Well, my dear readers, my post title gave it away. At some point on Wednesday, a lightbulb went off. Decreased performance. Low mood. Fatigue. Increased resting heart rate. Insomnia. Classic signs of overtraining.

I rested all day on Thursday (after sleeping 12 hours Wednesday night!). I slept another 12 hours Thursday night. Friday I ran 5 deliberately slow miles and today I'm resting before a 12 mile bike/8 mile run tomorrow. For now I'm going to increase my rest days from one day a week to two. I'm going to reorganize my workouts so that I don't have two hard workouts together (currently following Hal Higdon's Intermediate Spring Training which has Saturday as Tempo/Fartlek days, followed by a Sunday long run). I'm also going to temporarily cut my hill workout. At this point in my training, I think mileage is more important than hills, and Pittsburgh is so hilly, I can't avoid them. Instead of having a separate hill workout, I'll just handle the hills on my regular runs.

So cheers to training, but keeping it in perspective. Happy running (notice the smile's back!)

Blog Posts From Kat Ran Antarctica Tagged With overtraining

Overtraining