Most people don’t know they are overtrained until 1) they
end up injured or 2) the completely bomb in a race. However, you don’t have to wait for the
physical problems to occur. A “better”
(as in an earlier sign of detection) way to know if you might be running too
many miles may be by examining your mood.
Running, like other form of exercise, releases endorphins
that make you feel good. Therefore, you
should feel happy and energetic after a run.
On the other hand, when you overtrain this no longer holds true. You not
only feel tired and sluggish, but irritable and moody. These are symptoms of being overly stressed—that
you are doing more than your body can recover from. (And because your body is fighting so hard to
recover its’ broken down muscles and sending any extra blood flowing there,
even less is going to your brain.
Without the normal amount of blood flowing to the brain, it can’t
function as normal either.)
I used to feel that during my periods of high mileage, it
was “normal” to feel irritable and tired.
I simply gave my boyfriend what I considered a fair warning by posting my
running schedule for the month.
While I can accept
feeling a bit more tired here and there, it is definitely not normal to be
irritable and moody, especially towards others.
Actually, there is NO excuse to be irritable or mean to others. No training efforts are worth that.
So, if you find yourself feeling tired after your runs, or
lethargic and moody over the course of a few days, it’s time to do one of two
things:
1)
Review you sleeping habits, life stress, and
nutritional stress. (Possibly you aren’t getting enough sleep, or your life
stress or nutritional stress from eating unhealthy foods is in combat with your
physical/exercise induced stress)
OR
2)
You need to lower your mileage.
Run Happy!
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