Friday 28 November 2014

Overtraining - pointless effort

We Are Gazelles
28.11.2014
Day 228
Up at 5am, to prepare for the We Are Gazelles training session: hill repeats, big efforts, for one hour with fellow idiots. In the dark. Sleep deprived, plagued by 'power surges' that did nothing for my leg power, feeling nauseated and carb faced.

It was idiotic to train today, or at least to get up so early to train. I'd gone to bed really late, inadequately nourished (mostly full of biscuits), drank a ill advised coffee and expected to run energetically. Fat chance.
One of the basic tenets of successful running is treating rest, recovery and nutrition with the same respect as actually getting out there to train. I've fallen into the trap of believing running often, however badly, will do me some good. Overtraining is dangerous. It compromises your immune system, it  wastes your time, it makes you susceptible to overeating and, most dangerous of all it can get you injured. A serious injury now would be disastrous, as one of our number demonstrated, He's on crutches, his entire lower leg encased in a big orthopaedic boot (you can just see it in the photo. He spent the session doing press ups and other upper body exercises). A sprint session too far snapped his Achilles tendon. He'll be unable to run for several months. All plans cancelled. 

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