If you over train all season and then stop at the end of the season will you run faster than you would have if you would of just trained normally?
If you over train all season and then stop at the end of the season will you run faster than you would have if you would of just trained normally?
I don't think so because while you're overtraining I don't think you are recovering the same amount as when training normally. So even if you're working a lot harder (more mileage, harder workouts) you could overall be getting worse. Also it's kind of hard to come back from overtraining I think, you need to rest a lot and chill out which could take some more fitness and mental confidence away. I remember when I was overtraining I was also emotionally unstable a lot of the time, so by the time the end of the season came I didn't even want to race let alone run fast. That being said I'm pretty sure I've pr'ed after overtraining all season and then taking the week before conferences easy and eating well. Good luck.
It's called over-training for a reason.
leeflame wrote:
If you over train all season and then stop at the end of the season will you run faster than you would have if you would of just trained normally?
No, because under this scenario, by definition, you WOULDN'T be overtraining. You'd be optimally training, followed by a taper.
Overtraining leads to injury, illness, or staleness, not improved performance.
Oh well thanx for the replys. I just made the mistake of over training and thought that maybe I would benifit from it some how. I am taking the next 2 weeks easy so I guess we will see how things go next race.
You probably haven't overtrained, you've just overreached and with the break you should be just fine.
Don't worry, everything will be all right. Just listen to your coach and he will lead you to some impressive PRs.
okay... wrote:
Overtraining leads to injury, illness, or staleness, not improved performance.
I'm willing to be that undertraining has led to a lot more "injury, illness, or staleness, not improved performance" than overtraining.
No such thing as overtraining - it's under-recovery.
Like the glass half full?
Could say that. I've just always found that when I've focussed well on recovery methods such as always starting to put glycogen back immediately after training, eating well, getting enough sleep, massage, stretching, cold baths or hot/cold showers then I seem to be able to train and train and train and not have problems with injury or fatigue, where as doing the same training without focus on recovering properly, trouble occurs.
Of course there needs to be adequate time between hard workouts and there must be a volume limit somewhere (otherwise we'd all be out training 24/7/365), but I swear by taking the under-recovery rather than over-training philosophy.
rice rice baby wrote:
okay... wrote:Overtraining leads to injury, illness, or staleness, not improved performance.
I'm willing to be that undertraining has led to a lot more "injury, illness, or staleness, not improved performance" than overtraining.
Bill Bowerman said that the undertrained athlete would always beat the overtrained athlete.
All relative I guess though - 5% too much is worse than 5% too little but if you do no training I'm sure you'll have more of a problem.
A UK coach, Alan Storey, has a saying that boils down to the same thing, "It's better to be 100% healthy and 90% fit than 90% healthy and 100% fit."
In other words you can go out on a limb for that extra bit of 'fitness' but if you're pushing too hard for it you end up ill or injured, probably at exactly the time you want to be at your fittest.
alternative viewpoint wrote:
No such thing as overtraining - it's under-recovery.
Touche!
rice rice baby wrote:
okay... wrote:Overtraining leads to injury, illness, or staleness, not improved performance.
I'm willing to be that undertraining has led to a lot more "injury, illness, or staleness, not improved performance" than overtraining.
I'm willing to be you're wrong.
rice rice baby wrote:
okay... wrote:Overtraining leads to injury, illness, or staleness, not improved performance.
I'm willing to be that undertraining has led to a lot more "injury, illness, or staleness, not improved performance" than overtraining.
Maybe it's just semantics, but if you're not injured, ill, or stale, you're not overtraining. If you are, then you are.
Excellent post.
OK; here's the situation, the regime of runners who are able to run 120 miles per week and hard workouts are able to because thier systems are robust enough to do this( AKA: Gerry the Jogger). Sometimes even these gifted folks break down and "under perform". Seen it happen so many times.
Allot of folks that can not handle the work load poisen themselfs with accumulated stress and feel like shit after a while.
The problem isn't the work load, it's knowing where you are on the stress continuum. Too many people, including me go over their threshold and wonder why they can not improve.
The justification that I hear quite often, and a philosophy I had adopted was," ok I feel awful, but that's good, I'm going to get a huge return on my investment. " No pain no gain" and all that.
After getting hurt time and time again, I realize my best performances came (AFTER) huge breaks. I hated it but when I came back, I felt so good that I wondered why I never felt that way before I got sidelined.
Big PRs after being hurt. I adopted the philosophy of having a good base of rest, rather than a good base of mileage. Mileage many times gets over done and batta bing, I run like shit.
Truth is, addiction. I hate to back off. I love to hammer, so even though I know better when I'm on a roll, I think I will keep going up, like the stock market, only to suffer the great depression.
Oh by the way, I think the stock market is over trained. I bet our economy is getting over trained and unfortunately will suffer. Even though we are robust and can handle huge debt and have great companies. Debt can not last and it will make our house of cards fall .
Stress is a part of all systems. If it can adapt, growth ensues. If it can not it breaks, just like a branch in the winter that is loaded with ice.
Take what I say with a grain of salt, cause I'm just one guy that has my own set of beliefs based on 42 years of life experience and 27 years of running experience.
I 've seem the greatest runners fall prey to running like shit, cause they over stressed and I have seen the best performances from the folks that I never expected anything from. " Hey, what the hell is John running that fast for, the guy was fat last month?"
The stock market thing is harder( nearly impossible) to forecast( except for the yahoos on msnbc, Wall st. Journal, Forbes,et. They know as much as the local fortune teller.) Yes, I should say, I don't have a clew when the stock market will fall, I just know it will. Too many variables, but we all know when we feel like crap. It's obvious, f-ing obvious. When you feel bad, your sick, when you feel good, your not.
Feel good, have fun and don't think your super man. You are not, until you grow with health, not disease. When you do become Superman, remember, over stress is kryptonite and will knock you on your arse.
You don't know where the edge is until you have gone beyond it.
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Jtupper in one of his books has a line, and I am paraphrasing here, that goes something like "Optimal training is not maximal training".
...I realize my best performances came (AFTER) huge breaks...Noakes describes this as the 'Zatopek effect'- unscheduled layoffs from what would otherwise be intense periods of training right before a goal event. He cites several examples and it is hard to argue with the evidence- that an athlete is 'saved' from overtraining by the injury (or other event) which preserves condition at peak fitness. It also allows the body to supercompensate, or "over-recover".