“Anything you can do I can do better. I can do anything better than you.” This comes from the musical Annie Get Your Gun and the way some of us train you’d think that it’s true.
Following an average or sub par race performance, the tendency might be to pour it on in an attempt to improve. Instead of ending up on the podium, they end up in my office. Hurt! Tendinitis, stress fractures, fractured family relationships…and no races. I see the same thing this time of year when those New Year’s resolutions are beyond realistic.
Unbridled enthusiasm leads to more training errors than Stadler has flats on the Queen “K.” Couple this to those unexpected “workouts” such as the 8 hour Boy Scout canoe trip or hike using muscles you forgot you had, shovelling out the little old lady down the street after a 15″ snow fall or moving the offspring from one apartment to another and you have the recipe for overload.
We are no longer Plastic People as when we were kids, able to do just about anything we pleased without physical consequence. We know the difference between Advil and Tylenol from first hand experience. So what do we recommend to these athletes in order to stay away from the doctor? A plan.
To eliminate the speed bumps caused in exercise by overtraining, understanding that the sum work effort that each individual can handle is personal. Ben Greenfield is one of many who want you to follow these very easy steps: 1) Have a game plan, possibly covering a full year. 2)Write it down. It should include races you plan, family vacations, century rides, the works. 3) Weave your workouts and tapers around your planned contests. 4) BE REALISTIC about the training load your body sees and most importantly the rate of change in this load. Remember, just because one of your friends trains in a certain manner does not necessarily mean you should. One yardstick would be not to increase by more than 5% per week. Rest assured that as we age even that may be excessive. 5) Stick to your plan and build in rest, preferably a rest (decreased volume) week every 3-4 weeks. It’s called periodization.
It’s so much more rewarding to help an athlete avoid injury than to treat one, especially one that is self-induced.
Happy Training,