Does anyone ever look at their training logs and go “aw yeah, I’m really training pretty stupidly right now, I’m gonna keep destroying my fitness until I get a stress fracture!” I really don’t think so. If we knew we were making training mistakes, I’d think most of us would immediately stop and reformulate. But the fact is that we all come down with injuries at some point or another, and most of them can be traced back to a root cause. It’s usually some combination of over-training or under-resting, with a little bit of not doing preventative exercises thrown in for flavor.

The Question

As a relatively new runner, I still struggle to know when I’m pushing too hard. Of course intervals are going to hurt a little – that’s the point, right? And the training plan called for 12 x 400, so at rep 10, I’d expect to have to be going to the well just a little bit to get these done on pace. It’s not like my legs are falling off, they’re just a little dead. Later that day at work, climbing the stairs feels worse than the last 100m of a 5K, but that’s to be expected. Stairs are obviously awful after a workout. I’m a little tired throughout the day, but there’s a reason the pros get like 10 hours of sleep a night plus a nap.

Those things all sound pretty normal when you think about it. So how is anyone supposed to know when they’re pushing too hard and no longer building fitness? This applies even more to runners, who are stereotypically type-A overachievers. How are people who have learned their whole lives that working harder produces better results supposed to sit back and…rest? Continue Reading