How to prevent overtraining?

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  • drgndancer
    drgndancer Posts: 426 Member
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    Great info. Especially important this time of year with a raging flu season - overtraining can weaken your immune response. I've learned that above 15 miles per week running I really do need to obey the 10% rule of mileage increases (found out the hard way with ITBS). Cross training is a great tool and I always rest on Fridays.

    10% increase per week still adds up to too much too fast if you continue it for an extended period of time AND the body never gets accustomed to the new mileage. For example, at 10% increase starting at 15 miles per week:

    15
    16.5
    18
    20
    22
    24
    26.5
    30

    That DOUBLES your mileage in 8 weeks. There is no time for the body to recover. I prefer to go up 10 to 15% in mileage, hold for 2 weeks, have a cut-back week, then increase again, like thus:

    15
    17
    17
    15
    20
    20
    17
    23

    Same 8 week period, but a more sustainable increase with time for recovery and adaptation to the new stress.

    This is good info, and the way that most "professional" running programs are designed. The 10% rule is certainly a useful tool for minimizing over training, but like Carson points out it's a compound interest problem. The more miles you do, the larger 10% becomes.

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