Boston Training Week 6: Confessions of the Overtrained

by Carissa

I have a problem.  I am six weeks into my training plan for Boston and I’m beat.  This week was a recovery week where my mileage dropped down.  In theory it would give my body a chance to recover before I ramp up for the next couple weeks of training.  However, I don’t feel recovered.  I came out of week five with an unhappy calf and foot.  I ran nice and slow this week hoping the aches and pains would go away.  They are better but my body might not be ready for the 50 mile training week that’s up next.  
Six weeks of training all checked off

In addition to my leg not being 100% my schedule is wearing on me.  Last spring I trained for Eugene Marathon using a schedule with the same amount of peak training miles.  It was challenging but doable.  I ran but I didn’t do any cross training.  I didn’t do core work.  I didn’t do weight training.  I know these things are important for running strong but I did not feel like I could squeeze them in.  

After the marathon I finally established the habit of strengthening my core. I added strength training twice a week.  I added swimming twice a week.  Six weeks ago I added a marathon training schedule from the book Advanced Marathoning.  I tried for several weeks to keep up with it all.  I added too much.


What do you do when the training schedule you’re using turns out to be too much?  I am used to choosing hard.  It’s my personality.  I’m convinced it’s part of what makes me successful as a runner.  It’s why I’ve seen three years of racing and one personal record after the other.  Something being hard isn’t an excuse to not do it.  I’m training for a marathon.  It’s supposed to be hard.  I’m supposed to be tired.  I expect all this and yet something wasn't right.

I’m so bullheaded that sometimes I get lost in the details and miss the big picture.  In a moment of clarity I realized a whole list of things I was missing.  I was so busy ticking off everything on my schedule that I missed the fact that my recovery days weren’t light enough to allow me to recover.  I wasn’t doing as much as other friends training for a marathon but I missed how uniquely different we all are. I was focused on running speed work strong and I missed that I was trying too hard.  My training was feeling like a burden instead of something that adds to my life in a positive way.  I knew something was wrong when I found myself wishing I had never signed up for the Boston Marathon.
No need to be training for a triathlon AND Boston at the same time!

Once I started focusing on the big picture I could address what to do about the details that weren’t helping me arrive at the big picture.  Could I use a different training plan?  Do I need to swim twice a week?  Do I need to do core work and strength training?  All of these aspects of my training are good but when combined they aren’t working for me.   I need to be in tune with what is giving me energy and what is putting me over the edge.    I must train smart with purpose and stay within a reasonable level of effort.  I need to run hard enough to improve but not so hard that I injure myself or overtrain.

Have you ever found yourself overtraining?  This is an actual condition.  It is counterproductive to your progress and can happen to us recreational athletes too.  Here is a Runner's World article on the subject.  I don't think I meet the criteria in the article, but it did give me pause to reconsider how the amount of training I'm doing is making me feel.

Those are my confessions.  I’m going to start fresh and try again. My plan will be to strip away all of the extra stuff and only add it if I feel like I have the energy to spare.  I will be tempted to keep checking off my boxes and doing it all.  But for the sake of enjoying this process,  I must keep my eye on the bigger picture.  You’ll help me do this won’t you Sole Sisters?

12 comments:

  1. Carissa, this could not be more timely for me! I ran a hard 11 today after a very hard 12 on Saturday. Normally, I come home from a run and get right back into being Mom -- feeding kids, cleaning, cooking, laundry, etc. Today, I came home and could barely move off the couch for almost three hours. I am so wiped out! And I have speedwork at the track on Wednesday (8 x 800 -- ugh) that I am dreading. Last week I remember being excited for speedwork and I crushed my workout.

    I also started a strength training class last Thursday and was planning to start doing it twice a week. Now I'm rethinking that -- you are on to something when you say we need to strip a few things away and listen to our bodies a little more.

    My nagging foot injury came back during the last week, too, and my heart rate is at least 5 beats above "normal" at every pace that I ran today. AND, I lost a couple of pounds the last few days that I don't really think I needed to lose. I don't think I need any more signs that I'm on my way to being overtrained!

    We still have 12 weeks until Boston, which is PLENTY of time to get all of our training in. I'm with you as far as focusing on the bigger picture and not trying to do it all!! Let me know how it goes for you this week and take care of yourself. :)

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    1. I'm so sorry Kristen. It's nice that you have a coach to bounce things off of. I'm assuming he'll help you figure out what to scale back. I've been wanting to use my heart rate monitor. I like that it tipped you off to your body working harder. Rest up and I hope that foot injury clears up. Keep me posted!

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  2. I ended up with stress fractures for BOTH my marathons so My advice is LESS IS MORE. I would drop the swimming and cut the strength in half....the core is important and will serve you well.
    you might to lighten your mileage and also make sure you run those recovery miles SLOW. nothing wrong with 9-9:30min miles on your recovery days. be smart. I would hate to see you put all this work in and end up like me with a stress fracture 10 days before Boston:(
    xxx

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    1. Thanks Nicole. I agree with your advice. I need to be smart and sometimes that doesn't come naturally to the way I approach training. Now's the time to listen though and my body is sending a clear message.

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  3. With a little extra rest for your unhappy calf and foot and then trimming the workout to the minimum and adding extra only if you feel like it, it's going to be great!

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  4. I used to over train all of the time and that lead to a massive running burnout for me. I took almost a year off of running and turned into a couch potato.

    Training for a marathon is hard. I don't think you are necessarily over training at the moment, but if your leg isn't 100% I would definitely back off. Maybe just swim once a week and do really light lifting + core 1-2 days a week?

    If it helps, I am usually tired through my whole training schedule. It hasn't hit me yet, but I am sure in the coming weeks I will become exhausted until race day.

    Hang in there!

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    1. Thanks Tasha. I can definitely relate to being tired all the time. It's a weird combination of energizing and tiring. I don't want to become burned out so if that means I do less then I just need to adjust to that. I still can't tell what my leg is going to do. Get better? Get worse? I'd hate to play this game for the next 12 weeks.

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  5. I would say you just have to adapt it for you and feel out your body. I am on a schedule right now that is too simple, so I am adding a lot of cross training and miles. I think training plans are a guide, not simple directions.

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    1. I actually thought this was the plan that would allow for me to add but I guess I was adding too much. :) I tend to be too literal with my plans. I like your point of view: guide not directions.

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  6. I'm proud of you for slowing down a little bit C. It's odd for me to not be training with you. But this break from "training" and just running to run, has been profoundly beneficial for me. I remember why I like racing again and am ready to find a marathon to train for. I just hope you're ready to slog some miles after Boston to get me through those long runs! I'm proud of you and love you oodles!

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    1. I can't wait to cheer you on at a marathon. You've been able to do that for me but I've never been on the giving end. I think that would be really fun!

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