7 Steps You're Exercising Too Much and My Running

http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2012/12/28/7-hidden-signs-of-overtraining.aspx

My wife sent me this link today and because other family members decided to “pile-on”, I wanted a bit more space to respond than the original Facebook posting.  This is not a twitter -- 140 character response.  (And I use “pile-on” in absolutely the best way, I appreciate the concern).

In many ways, this article is targeted at runners AND preaching to the choir.  That is because EVERY running book and running plan I have ever read covers this issue, but also because runner’s, in the heat of a training plan, are very prone to overuse injuries.  So I reviewed the points, agree with most written (and perhaps every word, but I would have to read a few more times to be that sure!).  

His three points can probably be summarized as such:

1) Variety is much better than constant high intensity workouts.

2) Your body needs time to recover.

3) Listen to your body and adjust as needed.   

I am using the Hanson Brother’s Marathon Method this spring because I strongly agree with all of the above.  And the foundation of the plan is to agree with these facts, and develop a way of training that allows you to achieve your best performance while still being able to get to the start line.  Essentially, the entire plan is heavily researched in medical studies and designed to find what Mercola refers to as the “Goldilocks Zone.”

Dr. Mercola talks about too much high-intensity training of the fast muscle fibers, which need much longer to recover than slow-twitch.  (48 hours v. 24 hours) The very definition of long distance running is to train the slow twitch fibers.  My plan only has one day a week (~3 miles) done at an Anaerobic level with interval training.  (Tuesday with a full rest day on Wednesday).  I have 1-2 additional days a week that have a higher intensity (Tempo Runs on Thursday and Long runs every other Sunday).  The rest of the time (every Monday, Friday, Saturday and every other Sunday) is done at “easy” pace.  Easy pace is a slow pace that only uses slow twitch muscles and the circulation it promotes actually helps with healing and recovery.  

Let me also emphasize that although slow muscle fibers take 24 hours to recover, many plans, including the Hanson, do not require a full 24 hours between workouts.  Many runners run twice a day (two-fers).  There is also the concept of cumulative fatigue.  Your body needs to learn to run a bit when it is tired.  When you are running, for example, 50 miles per week, two 6 to 8 mile easy runs in a 24 hour period actually use that formula to help train your muscles to recover faster and reduce injury.  No one I know of recommends running two track interval workouts in a 24 hour period. But there is evidence that, for example, two 6 mile runs in a 24 hour period are actually better for recovery than one 12 mile run.  Again,  easy exercise should be at a level that promotes muscle heat, increased blood flow, and washing of the bad chemicals from the muscle tissue that allows for faster healing than full rest.  

The article lists 7 signs.  Here is my self-test this evening:

1. Exercise leaves you exhausted instead of energized.

It happens some days in EVERY program.  I have days where I can run >10 miles at a higher pace and feel great, and some days when I have trouble finishing 4-6 at an easy pace.  I adjust and don’t push it.  

One of the most frustrating things about running is how unpredictable it can be from day to day.  One day you can have your best run ever and the next can be your worse.  You can feel great during warm-up and feel crappy during the main workout/race or the opposite.  But as I have read more and more, it happens to the best runners in the world and history.  The key is listening to your body and recognizing if you need to back off one day, or it is a problem.  

And there are MANY factors here that have nothing to do with over-training.  Sleeping wrong, wearing the wrong shoes, poor nutrition, and even stress can create “bad” exhausting exercises rather than “runner’s high” runs.  

This is why runners are strongly encouraged to log information. You can spot trends and get a quicker idea of what is causing it.  Some bad runs have no visible reason.  But I am having 2-4 good runs a week that I finish tired, but not exhausted, feel like I could have run more, and pumped at my performance.  Now, I start logging 7 to 10 consecutive days of bad runs, and I need to figure out something!

2. You get sick easily (or it takes forever to get over a cold)

This is something to watch.  Has not happened yet, but I have seen more than one running book recommend adding extra vitamin C in the last few weeks of a training program.

3. You have the blues

So far, my exercise program has had opposite effect.  But we need to watch.  Again, logging helps.

4. You're unable to sleep or you can't seem to get enough sleep

This one is the one that worries me the most.  With sleep apnea, I always feel a bit tired.  With the heavier run schedule, it is worse.  But again, it is finding the Goldilocks Zone.  It is impossible to exercise at this level without some fatigue; need to monitor what is normal and what is excessive.  

I also try to log my resting heart rate.  Everything I have read says that is an even better way to stay on top of this.

5. You have ''heavy'' legs

Again, it happens to EVERY runner (see #1).  Need to review log and spot trends instead of just one bad day.

6. You have a short fuse

Again, monitor and ask those who live with you.  I was tired last weekend and missed some miles.  I was probably more frustrated because of missing the miles than over exercising.  But it is a balancing act to stay in the Goldilocks Zone.

7. You're regularly sore for days at a time

This has not been a problem, knock on wood.  I have some general soreness and tiredness, but I have not had delayed on-set muscle soreness or extra pain the next morning below my waist.  I have had a bit of back stiffness and pain, but I don’t think that is running.  I did have soreness for a couple of days after skiing, but that was because of an addition to the plan rather than the plan.  My legs are feeling strong and stronger.  

This is one of the reasons so many marathon programs recommend regular massage therapy.  Having someone else look for tightness, signs of injury, and pain in your muscles regularly are as important as the effects of massage helping with muscle recovery.  

There is no scoring system provided, but similar lists I have seen use weighted points.  I think #1 and #7 are the clearest signs, others like #2 and #4 can indicate you are ignoring or in denial about the others, can actually be improved by exercise, or can be totally unrelated.  

I would also say that there are a couple of  points missing:

1. Gradual increase -- Every good running plan I have seen uses the gradual rule.  You don’t come off the couch and start with 40 miles per week.  You start slow, and then increase slowly..  So if my total mileage this week is 40 miles, next week cannot be more than 44 (10%).  If my longest run is 10 miles, next week it cannot be more than 12 miles.  My plan generally increases long runs by 2 miles every other  week (starting at 10) and increases Tempo runs by 2 miles every 4th week.  Increasing too fast is a great way to get shin splints and about 4 million other overuse injuries.

2. Cycles -- You need cycles both within the programs and between programs.  For example, my long run is every other week, with the in between weeks an easy run.  So I will run Long 12mile this weekend, easy 10 the week after, then Long 13, easy 12, long 14, etc.  

Between programs, you need time with all low intensity or easy runs.  I ran a lot of races this fall in the 5k, 5m, and 10K range.  I had two weeks in December where I stopped stressing about mileage or days per week.  I kept my fitness up, but only ran about 3-4 days per week with a much lower total.  When I came back, I ran farther and faster than the few weeks at the end of last season.  I am now running Tempo training runs faster than last fall’s race pace and feeling great at the end of the run.  

3. You need some stress to grow.  

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.”
T.S. Elliot
I am positive Mercola agrees.  Again, I am repeating myself, but the key is the Goldilocks Zone.  You really have no way of knowing how far you can go.  So you increase the work, listen to your body, and then either back off, stay at this point, or increase the goal.  

Bottom line, I have more days with restless energy at some point, then dead legs and total exhaustion.  I am running faster than I ever thought possible and I am confident I have not found my limits yet.  So the journey continues.  

One question I always ask is “what can this new me do?”  I am not close to an answer yet!

Racing Weight

I have been reading Matt Fitzgerald’s book Racing Weight and I really like what I am finding.  I have switched over to his plan and increased my daily calorie consumption to insure I reach my race goals at the right weight, without sacrificing muscle and performance to do so.  He operates on a points system called Diet Quality. You receive between +2 and -2 points per serving depending on what type of food it is (Fruit, veggie, Lean Meat, Fat Meat, Nuts, Sugar, etc.) and how many servings you have had that day.  The best possible score is +32.  In the five days I have been tracking my score, I have been between 16 and 25, with an average of 21.  That is very good.  I feel like I am eating too much, I am not hungry, and I am eating even better than I was.  

Sounds great, right?  Well, I started the program Sunday, Jan 6.  I also started increasing my mileage and intensity for spring training on Sunday Dec. 30th.  Between Thursday Jan 3rd, and Thursday Jan 10th, I lost 6#.  Wow, way too much.  The plan says I should lose about 0.9# per week to insure I don’t negatively impact my training and muscle development. I seem to have crossed a magical barrier where my body is forced to burn more calories per day than it would like to keep up with my training.  (see my previous post here on Exercise, Metabolism, and Weight Loss -- http://windrunning.blogspot.com/2012/11/exercise-metabolism-and-weight-loss.html)  I have also been normal temperature at work the last two days, and did not need to wear my jacket.  

So, I am back to the book to make sure I am getting enough energy ingested to keep up with my training.  The plan only gets harder from here and I need to make sure I don’t starve myself.  I think this is the first time in my life I have ever been worried about losing weight too fast and not eating enough.  It feels strange. 

Sore Back and Tired

(Note:  Originally wrote this on 1/4/2013)


I woke up yesterday morning with a sore back.  Thanks to the recent medical studies on NSAIDs not being good for athletes training, I was reluctant to take anything.  I ended up taking two so I could get to work.  Last night after work, my back felt fine and I decided to try to get in my 6 miles.  I felt dead tired.  No sore spots, legs were not “heavy” but entire body did not want to move.  I could not hold a constant pace, too fast, too slow, mostly too slow.  I needed walk breaks about every mile.  I only got 4.1 miles in before heading for the showers.  

This morning, I had the back pain back.  Now, I rarely have back pain, so two mornings in a row is strange.  It seems to be located below my right shoulder blade.  So, I will see if I can get 5-7 of my scheduled 5 miles in after work.  

Running Speed and Running Training Speed

(Originally wrote this on 1/2/2013 about my 1/1/2013 run)

I had my first full and actual gosh darn Speed Training session yesterday (12 x 400m at 5K goal pace with 400m jogs in between).  By the second run interval, I was fighting with myself over pace and ability to finish.  During EVERY interval, there was a point where I told myself I could not finish this segment, much less the workout.  

I focused on two thoughts:

* How good will it feel to finish my FIRST speed workout.

* OK, screw it, just do the next (current) interval and then we will slow them down.  

But I finished and felt good!  OK, I felt tired and a bit pained, but I also felt good about myself and what I had accomplished.  

I also looked back and my workout pace.  I started running again in mid-July and in August, my pacing for training runs was between 14:28 and 15:23.  In the last couple of weeks, it has been around 11:20!  Wow,  3 to 4 minutes per mile faster!!!

I have also abandoned the Galloway run/walk method.  I still use it for warm-ups, but my easy, tempo, and long runs have gone to all running with no walk breaks.  My body seems to be adapting and I really feel like I am getting stronger.  The training times prove it, which makes me very excited to see what I can do this spring during the racing season.

Why I Run?

I find this is a hard question to answer; I have been trying to get my thoughts in a written form that make sense.  It has proved elusive.  But I found two EXCELLENT answers this week from books I am reading.  I agree with their points and I am simply going to insert the long quotes and use them for my answer:  

“Running is a brutal and emotional sport.  It’s also a simple, primal sport.  As humans, on the most basic level, we get hungry, we sleep, we yearn for love, we run.  Just watch small children left to play unsupervised.  They can’t stop running.  It is part of what makes us human.

Perhaps it is to fulfill this primal urge that runners and joggers get up every morning and pound the streets in cities all over the world. To feel the stirring of something primeval deep down in the pits of our bellies.  To feel ‘a little bit wild.’  Running is not exactly fun.  Running hurts. It takes effort. Ask any runner why he runs, and he will probably look at you with a wry smile and say; ‘I don’t know.’ But something keeps up going. We may obsess about our PB’s [personal best’s] and mileage count, but these things alone are not enough to get us out running. We could find easier ways to chart and measure things. We could become accountants. No, the times and charts are merely carrots we dangle in front of our rational mind, our overanalytical brain, to give it a reason to come along for the ride. What really drives us is something else, this need to feel human, to reach below the multitude of layers of roles and responsibilities that society has placed on us, down below the company name tags, and even father, husband, son labels, to the pure, raw human being underneath. At such moments, our rational mind becomes redundant. We move from thought to feeling.

Except our mind doesn’t just stop. Many runners say that they become aware of their thoughts when they run. All day our thoughts churn away, turning us this way and that, but this doesn’t bother us in the slightest. Yet the minute we start moving away from its carefully constructed world of reason, into the wild heart of existence, our mind panics. Our thoughts try to pull us back, to slow us down. But like the marathon monks of Mount Hiei in Japan, who complete one thousand ultra marathons in one thousand days in search of enlightenment, if we push on, we begin to feel a vague, tingling sense of who, or what we really are. It’s a powerful feeling, strong enough to have us coming back for more, again and again.  

Love too, connects us with a primal feeling deep within us, far from the realm of reason, which is why Paula [Radcliffe’s] chant [‘I love you Isla’ about her baby daughter used to win NYC Marathon] worked. The love she felt for her daughter and the raw emotion of running came from the same source. Evoking love helped push her on, even though rationally it shouldn’t have made any difference. Her daughter couldn’t hear her internal chant, and even if she could, at nine months old she was oblivious to the whole concept of marathon running. But by calling on such a strong emotion, Paula was able to bypass such reasoning. Her rational brain, which was telling her, no doubt, to slow down, was overcome.”

Adharanand Finn
Running with the Kenyans, Chapter 20


“Pretend I am a person who can only see the world in black-and-white. Now imagine you need to explain to me what the color blue looks like. How would you do it?

That is exactly what it is like trying to explain running to a nonrunner. Being a runner is like being able to see the color blue. When two people share these common experiences, they do not need to talk about them or try to describe them in words. But without common experience, it is difficult for me, or any other runner, to help you understand why we are so passionate about this sport. If you really want answers, you need to become a runner and develop color vision.”

“Becoming a runner and sharing in this common experience is not as easy as simply lacing up your shoes one day and going for a run.  It is a journey that can take some time and determination as your body adjusts to this new activity.  It is a rite of passage every runner must go through to unlock the secret all runners share, but I cannot describe it in words any better than you can describe the color blue. Once the secret is unlocked, a new level and depth of understanding emerges.”
“Put yourself in the shoes of many people when they first start running. Every step hurts. Every stride is pain. Your knees hurt. Your lower back aches. During your runs, your chest feels constricted. Even something as natural as breathing causes you discomfort. None of your body’s systems seem to be working together. They are in constant conflict and discord as the heart races, the breathing is strained, and the muscles rebel, burn, and feel heavy. After your runs, as you count the new blisters on your feet, you feel as if you’ve been hit by a truck. The conventional wisdom that running is not fun seems truer than ever. ‘How can people do this for fun?’ begs a painfully obvious answer: They can’t! But if you continue to run and resist all common sense and logic to quit, one day, something magical happens. One day while on a run, you notice that running does not hurt. Not only does it not hurt, but it feels natural and easy. Your legs feel powerful and strong. Your breath, heartbeat, and muscles have found a rhythm and harmony working together in perfect balance. You get a sense that this is what humans were meant to do, and you feel a connection to your primitive ancestors, as if you have discovered what you were always meant to be. On that day, you have finally reached the top of the mountain, and lived for a moment in the runner’s reality. On that day, you unlocked the secret to a new understanding, just as the person who has never seen in color opens her eyes to see the color blue. You have had an experience that can never be taken away. Finally, you get it. Finally, you see and comprehend what all the fuss is about.”

“Why do we run? Running is the gift we give ourselves. Like most things worth doing, running is hard, making the fruits of our labor intensely sweet and profoundly satisfying.  We run because running allows us to live in a reality where we develop a sense of enthusiasm with what others might call mundane. It is a reality that reveals the world, our bodies, and our minds to us with the same sense of wonder and discovery as seen through the eyes of a child.”

“This is the difference between a pastime and a passion. I like to play golf, but I am not a golfer. I like to cook, but I am not a chef. I don’t just like to run. I am a runner.  It is a passion. It is part of who I am and is woven into the fabric of my personality, character, and psyche. People who run to lose weight, to meet a standard for the military, or for any other purpose beyond running itself are still running but more as a pastime than as a passion. Passionate runners run because they love the feeling of running in their legs and chest. They run because running flows from their pores as easily as sweat. They chase faster times, longer runs, and better workouts for intrinsic reasons that transcend any extrinsic benefit. They run because an internal force inside of them drives them to test their limits. They run because in running, they are in the moment, in flow, living a life they chose. Runners might be losing weight, lowering their blood pressure, avoiding diabetes, and getting in their recommended daily allowance of exercise, but these are happy by-products of their passion for the activity itself. There is nothing wrong with people who run as a pastime any more than with people who play golf or people who cook as pastimes. In fact, the runner, golfer, and chef appreciate the people who run, golf, and cook as pastimes because the ‘pastime people’ have a greater understanding of what it takes to be good at a chosen passion. They get a glimpse of the life without fully living it. But people who run merely as a pastime do not share the same understanding of what it means to be a runner. Even on my worst days, when running is not fun, or when I have to force myself to get out of bed and out the door, I am still a runner. It is still me!”

“It is the exact opposite to a drug addiction. Drug habits are easy to start, but people have to check themselves into rehab clinics to stop. Running is a drug where the stopping is easy. Getting hooked is the hard part. Runners who have fallen from the grace of their own health need to enter rehab and work like the devil to get back on the running drug.”

Goucher & Catalano
Running the Edge