It's safe to say I get excited about new things I like. So excited that I tend to overdo things. For instance, I have just started reading about Buddhist philosophy. I have finished several books ranging from basic to more advanced writings of Tibetan Buddhism. One book I had to stop reading because my knowledge wasn't extensive enough to really grasp the concepts. I had to make the reluctant decision to cease reading that book and move onto something whose content was more easily understood. I have since moved onto a book called "The Art of Happiness" co-written by the Dalai Lama. The concepts presented are easier to grasp and I don't feel overwhelmed or that I'm over my head.
As far as my training, I recently joined a fitness facility that offers personal training. I figured it would be a nice compliment to the vast amounts of running I've been doing. I joined about a month ago and I absolutely love it. Being a lifelong "non-morning" person, I was surprised that I had no problem getting up at 5am four times a week for the past month.
I have been cruising along for the past month rising early on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. My running schedule has me running every day except for Tuesday and Friday with Saturday and Mondays being optional running days. So far so good.
This week my training mileage got to 36 miles by midweek and my wife and the personal trainer at the fitness facitliy have raised concerns that I might be on the verge of overtraining. On Thursday morning when I showed up for my morning workout my trainer asked what kind of mileage I ran the previous day. I told him 20 and was planning on running 10 more that night after work. He raised concern about doing too much without getting enough rest. The magic equation is: Training = work + rest. He was beginning to think my work and rest starting to be at an imbalance.
I have been so excited about this complimentary work schedule to my training that I never really thought that I might have "lit the candle at both ends" as they say. I have been trying to soak in all the new and exciting techniques and exercises that the idea of physical burnout hasn't even crossed my mind. I have seen the two activities as independent from each other. The only problem is that I didn't make the connection that I'm using the same body. Oop.
When I went in Friday morning for another workout session. My trainer again raised concerns that I'm heading down the road of overtraining. He asked if I had run the day before and I told him I had run 10. He told me about his episode with overtraining and how much it sucks. My attitude was pretty nonchalant and I assured him and myself that I would be careful. I agreed to bring in my running training schedule and he would fine tune the workout he created for me to compliment it.
After our short conversation I went onto my warmup and my workout that day was a mix of victories and defeats. I did well on some of my sets while I did poorly on others. My hips were too tight to properly execute one of the exercises properly and I had to abandon it to do some self myofascial release stuff on my glutes and hips. I hadn't realized how tight they were and the myo release was actually a little painful. I left the workout and headed home and discussed the issue of overtraining with my wife before she had to leave for work. She was concerned about me heading in that direction too.
So there I was feeling a little dejected about my efforts for the past month. I spent the day thinking about everyone's concerns and was a little blue about it. I squeezed in some gluteus stretches throughout the day to try and restore some flexibility. I got home from work that night and decided to stretch while I watched television. I had been neglecting to do any serious stretching in the past month. I immediately found that a lot of muscles and muscle groups were tight. Some muscles that I've never had a problem with were now tight. Working out various body parts for the first time in a while were causing tightness to creep in. It was during this session of stretching that I made the decision that I would have to cut back on my extracurricular training at the fitness facility but could offset this by using my rest days for stretching. I would have to concede to those who were speaking with the authority of wisdom on their side.
The frustrating thing about everybody voicing their concerns about my overtraining is that I don't have the experience to see where all this work could be leading me. I've been in the mindset of doing the work to improve my performance and my fitness. I hadn't give much thought that I could be overtraining or headed for an overuse injury. I'm feeling thankful right now that I do have people who are looking out for me.
Ceasing to read a book whose concepts are above my understanding was a lot easier for me to figure out than doing a physical workload that may or not be beyond my physical threshold. I didn't immediately grasp the idea that I could be on an unsustainable schedule. I suppose averaging 40 to 50 miles running weeks is enough activity in and of itself. Let alone adding four to five hours of crosstraining to the mix. It has been a mildly humbling thing to admit that they are correct. I would rather ere on the side of caution right now than to find out what they already know through experience. I realize that they don't want me to pull over or get onto a different road. They just want me to slow down and keep myself under control to prevent burnout or injury.
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