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?
Lindsay,
That is the million dollar question! It is very hard to know the fine difference in training hard and overtraining.
Common warning signs of overtraining include:
Washed-out feeling, tired, drained, lack of energy
Mild leg soreness, general achiness
Pain in muscles & joints
Sudden drop in performance
Insomnia
Headaches
Decreased immunity (increased number of colds, and sore throats)
decrease in training capacity / intensity
moodiness and irritability
depression
loss of enthusiasm for the sport
decreased appetite
increased incidence of injuries.
I remember having a lot of these symptoms when I was a teenager. Back in the late 70's and early 80's high yardage and overtraining was the norm! I think that is why I burned out in college. I remember having A LOT of the symptoms above. I STAYED sick and felt terrible. Now I don't train more than 4 days a week. My body needs recovery days! If I feel especially tired, I try to take a day or two off and try to really take care of myself......in fact, I feel the need to take tomorrow off now that I look at this list! ;)
Lindsay,
That is the million dollar question! It is very hard to know the fine difference in training hard and overtraining.
Common warning signs of overtraining include:
Washed-out feeling, tired, drained, lack of energy
Mild leg soreness, general achiness
Pain in muscles & joints
Sudden drop in performance
Insomnia
Headaches
Decreased immunity (increased number of colds, and sore throats)
decrease in training capacity / intensity
moodiness and irritability
depression
loss of enthusiasm for the sport
decreased appetite
increased incidence of injuries.
I remember having a lot of these symptoms when I was a teenager. Back in the late 70's and early 80's high yardage and overtraining was the norm! I think that is why I burned out in college. I remember having A LOT of the symptoms above. I STAYED sick and felt terrible. Now I don't train more than 4 days a week. My body needs recovery days! If I feel especially tired, I try to take a day or two off and try to really take care of myself......in fact, I feel the need to take tomorrow off now that I look at this list! ;)
