Restoration in Long Distance Running – Part 4: Overtraining, and Psychological Recovery
© Clive Maxwell Prestt
As I stated in Part 1 of this quartet of articles, after explaining the need to monitor your heart rate and blood pressure, and to keep a training diary as a useful tool to aid your training, now I would like to examine the training factor of restoration shown in detail. As you can see from the diagram below, restoration, or resting so as to recover between training sessions, is the key to your success in long distance running. However, a great many people who train for long distance running dnorealisesese this, train too hard, do not allow enough rest, and leave their races behind in their training.
In the first article I examined the first topic of the seven listed below, and then in the second part, the second of the seven topics, followed by the third topic in the third article. Now I look at the fourth andaspovertrainingainingraining and psychological restoration, which are distinct but related.
To help taste what I mean, I have written the following description as something that may be familiar to you:
'He was not so hot to trot today, his legs felt sore after the previous day's hard training session on the track. So this was a recovery run, steady, even paced, without trying to run fast, in fact, without trying at all.'
Aspects of restoration
1. How to aid restoration of the skeletal-muscular systrestcardio-respiratorydio-respiratorye cardio-respiratory system
3. How to restore the extovertrainedss
overtraineddo if you have overtrained
5. Nutrition - what food you need
6. Lifestyle - yours!
Overtraining
I have covered this topic before, but revision, recycling and extension of the knowledge can do no harm.
Focus question: Have you ever experienced any of the following conditions in the list?
Runners sometimes experience a significant deterioration in how they feel, complaining of unfavourable feelings in:
- the heart
- headaches
- poor sleep
- poor appetites
- suppressed moods
- sluggishness
- apathy
- nervousness
- no desire to train
- fatiguing quickly
And so on. There may be one complaint, there may be several at the same time.
Disturbance in the Nervous System
Athletes usually first show a complaint that is related to disturbance in the nervous system. Medical examination usually finds nothing wrong with the skeletal-muscular system, internal organs or biochemical exchange of foodstuffs.
What is found are signs of uncertainty, asthenia (debility) and nervous exhaustion.
In sports medicine this condition is known as over-fatigue or overtraining.
Causes of Disturbance in the Nervous System
Why is this? Disturbance in the nervous system occurs becahumuralre ishumuralnic and insufficient restoration of the nerve and hormonal humural system. If the athlete continues to train it could lead to disturbance in and damage to more vulnerable organs or systems. This could mean a prolonged period without training, such as results from glandular fever.
