Overtraining. Don’t do it. Seriously.
This post is prompted by a couple of things…
– I received a phone call from an old client/friend who was asking me to help her out with some coaching advice for the lead in to Cyclocross Nationals. She’s a coach herself, and a former World Champion. She knows her stuff.
– There’s a Jiu-Jitsu competition coming up, and everyone at the gym is rolling extra tough…
– I spent some time reading through some posts on training on the RBR cyclocross site.
So, what’s the common thread here?
Over Training.
– The folks at the gym are rolling so hard they’re getting burned out already and the comp is still a ways off…
– The talking heads on RBR are doing crazy s**t, and burning out, or doing stuff that’s way too easy and not getting any results.
– My friend/client called me because she knows she has a tendency to over train, and needs someone she trusts to tell her when to back off.
Remember that part where I said this was a former World Champion?
“Smart” sometimes means knowing when you’re dumb. Dumb as in “too stubborn to back off when I know I should.”
Job #1 of the coach/trainer is Stop your stupid athlete from over-doing it.
Sometimes it’s your only job.
If you don’t have a coach/trainer, finding the line between training right and training too much may well be the hardest part of your job – harder even than the training itself.
Start thinking about this, and if you’re doing the Cyclocross Workout Of The Day, really pay attention to the over training warnings.
More on the topic soon, but just start thinking about this, OK?
OK.
Notes:
– If you aren’t keeping a training log, start now. Keep track of what training you are doing, and track your subjective reactions to training stimulus. This is jargonese for those little comments you make in the margins – you know, “Felt like crap today,” or “felt AWESOME!!!”
– Rest and recover. Damn it.
– Don’t be afraid to skip workouts if you really, really need to. You gain more from recovering when you need to than from driving yourself so hard that you get sick, hurt, injured, or so burned out that you quit.
– Have. Fun. Damnit. It Just.Isn’t.Worth.It.If.It.Isn’t.Fun.
M
Crosssports's Weblog 
So wait, jiu-jitsu players ignoring restoration and recovery? that can’t happen can it!
Btw linked your blog to mine. Let me know if you have any objections.
John
Wow… congratulations on the progeny-to-be! That’s fantastic!
Thanks for the link… I need to get a blog-link sidebar up on here, and will reciprocate when I do.
M
Thanks man. I’m super excited.
No worries on the linkage, you’re writing interesting stuff, and those links are mostly for my benefit.
hopefully see you saturday.
Well, congrats again, and I’m glad you find the ramblings interesting; that means a lot, coming from you. Looking forward to having you back in class!