Training with Fatigue

There are two things that could be happening: "over-reaching" or "over-training". They are quite different. "Over-reaching" is the result of a single workout, where you have pushed yourself quite hard and in the 24 hours after you may feel tired, light-headed, irritable, raised heart rate, etc, 48 hours after the workout you may get DOMS ( delayed onset muscle soreness ). However the next time you are in the pool you feel great and are able to continue to improve. "Overtraining" however, presents the same set of "symptoms", along with problems sleeping, moodiness, problems concentrating but after 24 or 48 hours you still feel the same way or get worse. If you consistently overtrain then you will decrease in performance and possibly get colds more easily. Most of the newly released books on swimming cover overtraining in depth. Part of the problem is that a lot of the training plans and workouts out there are written for younger swimmers doing 20 + hours a week in the pool and are not that suitable for a 40+ masters swimmer. Bill Sweetenham in "Championship swimming" recommends that masters swimmers structure their training to have 85% aerobic work, 10% anaerobic work and 5% speed or Lactic work. This is quite different to what is advised for younger swimmers up to their 20's and elite swimmers who are training around 70-80% aerobic, 10-20% anaerobic and 10% speed work. The basal heart rate is one way of checking your system, however it is affected by hydration levels, tension, caffeine, activity level, etc. A better check is to look at a number of factors such as perceived effort, general mood, and swim performance. Have a set such as 7 by 200m that you perform regularly. Check your stroke length, average speed and heart rate during the set. Comparing the results from time to time would show overtraining if more strokes or a higher heart rate was needed to make the goal times on the set. There is a move for coaches to change from "work based training" to "recovery based training". Check out: www.moregold.com.au for detailed info on this.

There are two things that could be happening: "over-reaching" or "over-training". They are quite different. "Over-reaching" is the result of a single workout, where you have pushed yourself quite hard and in the 24 hours after you may feel tired, light-headed, irritable, raised heart rate, etc, 48 hours after the workout you may get DOMS ( delayed onset muscle soreness ). However the next time you are in the pool you feel great and are able to continue to improve. "Overtraining" however, presents the same set of "symptoms", along with problems sleeping, moodiness, problems concentrating but after 24 or 48 hours you still feel the same way or get worse. If you consistently overtrain then you will decrease in performance and possibly get colds more easily. Most of the newly released books on swimming cover overtraining in depth. Part of the problem is that a lot of the training plans and workouts out there are written for younger swimmers doing 20 + hours a week in the pool and are not that suitable for a 40+ masters swimmer. Bill Sweetenham in "Championship swimming" recommends that masters swimmers structure their training to have 85% aerobic work, 10% anaerobic work and 5% speed or Lactic work. This is quite different to what is advised for younger swimmers up to their 20's and elite swimmers who are training around 70-80% aerobic, 10-20% anaerobic and 10% speed work. The basal heart rate is one way of checking your system, however it is affected by hydration levels, tension, caffeine, activity level, etc. A better check is to look at a number of factors such as perceived effort, general mood, and swim performance. Have a set such as 7 by 200m that you perform regularly. Check your stroke length, average speed and heart rate during the set. Comparing the results from time to time would show overtraining if more strokes or a higher heart rate was needed to make the goal times on the set. There is a move for coaches to change from "work based training" to "recovery based training". Check out: www.moregold.com.au for detailed info on this.