Recovering From a Setback
No matter who you are, there will be setbacks. What can you do when this happens to you? First, stop and evaluate what has happened. If you keep a training log, go back and review your workouts. Have you attempted more had workouts than you usually do? Have you increased you mileage too much? Has the weather changed dramatically? Or do you simply need a little break?
A training log is a great resource for figuring out the cause of a setback. Things to look for include mileage, increased number or hard workouts, resting heart rate, mileage of your shoes, consecutive weeks of hard training, races, etc.
A great cause of a setback is increasing your workout intensity. Not allowing at least one days rest in between hard workouts is a sure fire way to cause problems. Hard workouts plus races in the same week can also lead to over training. When you usually do two hard workouts a week and suddenly increase it to three per week, your body will use up all of its reserves. A couple of weeks of this and ignoring the signs of fatigue will cause the body and mind to bring things to a screeching halt.
If you use a heart rate monitor begin each day by checking your resting heart rate. An increase of only 5 beats per minute can be the early warning signs to take it easy. Think of it this way, would I rather take it easier for one day, or would I rather be out of commission for a week.
Keep an eye on your shoes mileage. Shoe wear sneaks up on you. Wearing your shoes day after day causes them to break down. After three hundred miles shoes begin show signs of wear. As shoes wear out your body can begin to incur minor injuries that lead to mayor injury causing layoffs. A good way to combat this is to record when you bought your shoes and keep track of your mileage on the shoes as well. Many logs have this feature built into them. A great log that I personally use is Run Log. Run Log asks you each time for the shoes that you're using, and adds the mileage until the preset alert tells you that it is time for new shoes.
Too many weeks of high mileage can cause performance and mental setbacks. I will train two weeks in a row with high mileage and decrease the third week by as much as 50%. During marathon training, decreasing every third week will actually allow your body to become much stronger. Weeks and weeks of high mileage, long runs, intervals, racing etc causes more setbacks than any other type of training. Give your body and mind a break every third week, you will be surprised what can happen.
Extreme weather conditions, be it hot summer days or cold winter ones puts increased stress on your body. As the temperature goes up above 85 deg or below 10 degrees your body has to work extremely hard to exercise. During these times you can shorten your workouts, workout at warmer times during the winter, cooler times during the summer, or run indoors on a treadmill. Just be aware that your body is working harder during these times.
If none of my suggestions seem to make any difference. Or if you have been training nonstop for more than six months. You just might need to take some time off from running. One week or even two weeks could be just what your mind and body need. Don't worry about losing all of your fitness. After two weeks of inactivity you only lose about 10% of your aerobic capacity. Your mind will more than likely regain 100% of its enthusiasm for running again. When the body is rested and the mind is chomping at the bit to get it on, great things can happen.
Author: Richard Shryack
Richard Shryack is the author of Ultimate Training, Run2Fast, and Fatigue Nutrition.
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