I wanted to ask a question - just out of curiosity.
I had a too strenuous training regime a couple of weeks ago and I ended up a bit overtrained. I suffered then from chronic exhaustion and my results became much poorer. All improvement that I had made during the past three months was gone. I started to swim 50m fc at terrifying time of 41-43 secs, though I had already been able to do the same in 38 secs for 50m (not great, I know, but my swimming career is yet rather short).
I decided to have a rest. I was going to the pool only two - three times a week, decreased the volume to 1500-2000 and abandoned any demanding tasks. Just leisure swimming - technique and turns.
After about 10-12 days I was feeling great. No sign of exhaustion. In fact the fatigue disappeared already after about three days of rest.
But then, whenever I tried to experiment with speed and swim one or two 50s or 100s I found my results still as poor as at the time when my exhaustion reached its peak. I could not understand why my body does not want to stand a heavier effort even though my subjective symptoms of overtraining (i.e. fatigue etc) are no longer felt.
Now I am back in form - even did my pb at 50m :) (probably because I focussed so much on technique during the past three weeks).
Still I am very curious why it was so hard to me to swim faster, even though I did not feel any chronic exhaustion any longer? Is it possible that the effects of the overtraining last still longer than you subjectively experience them?
Hi
My question is to Islandsox and swimr4life:
From what I read in your messages I infer (but I am not sure if I am right) that you normally overtrain during the season and then taper to get back to form before competition. I do not know if I understood you well, of course. Is it an ordinary course of affairs, a regular scheme of the training cycle, that one overtrains and than tapers? I thought that overtraining is something undesirable and that you must be careful to avoid it.
It's not "overtraining" it's just training. As my coach used to say, "You have to go slower before you can go faster!" You want to put enough strain on your body and your energy systems to get a benefit. Your body adapts to it and is able to better perform later in the season when you taper. That's what works for me personally. I'm a sprinter and do very high quality workouts. These type workouts will make you feel like this :dedhorse: at times! If you are a distance swimmer, you usually don't need to back off as much for a big meet. Like I said in my earlier post...everyone is different and you have to find what works for you personally.
Hi
My question is to Islandsox and swimr4life:
From what I read in your messages I infer (but I am not sure if I am right) that you normally overtrain during the season and then taper to get back to form before competition. I do not know if I understood you well, of course. Is it an ordinary course of affairs, a regular scheme of the training cycle, that one overtrains and than tapers? I thought that overtraining is something undesirable and that you must be careful to avoid it.
It's not "overtraining" it's just training. As my coach used to say, "You have to go slower before you can go faster!" You want to put enough strain on your body and your energy systems to get a benefit. Your body adapts to it and is able to better perform later in the season when you taper. That's what works for me personally. I'm a sprinter and do very high quality workouts. These type workouts will make you feel like this :dedhorse: at times! If you are a distance swimmer, you usually don't need to back off as much for a big meet. Like I said in my earlier post...everyone is different and you have to find what works for you personally.
