7 Ways Runners Can Avoid Overtraining

Feeling the burn after a workout is a great sign that you've done your job. That burn is a result of pushing your body past what it's used to. Challenging yourself toward harder, more intense workouts over a period of time is called progressive overload. Progressive overload trains your body to adapt to the new conditions being put upon it.

The key, however, is making sure that along with the progressive overload you are also giving your body time to recover. Ever notice how most marathon training plans have you run a 20-miler followed by a day of rest and a shorter "long run" the following week? Or the plan may have you increase your long run mileage a little each week up to a certain point and then drop off and build back up again. That's progressive overload or stress adaptation. Build up. Back off a little. Build up. Back off a little. Overloading the body and then giving it a chance to recover, adapt, and heal before placing more stress upon it, is a great way to train.

New runners and seasoned runners both can get caught up in the excitement of training. Before they know it, they've peaked, burned themselves out (physically and/or mentally) or worse, suffered an injury before race day. Below are some good tips to follow to get the most out of your training without overtraining.

1. Follow the 90 percent rule. When doing quality workouts (hill repeats, tempo runs, intervals, long runs), push yourself, but always leave something left in the tank. Think about pushing yourself up to about 90 percent of your maximum effort, but never give push it to maximum effort. After finishing a quality workout, you should feel tired. You should feel like you've worked hard, but you should also feel like, "Hmmm, I could have done a little more." This should be a good feeling, not something to beat yourself up about. Knowing that you've worked hard (close to maximum effort), but not crawling away from the workout and needing three days to recover will greatly benefit you in the long run. Doing every quality workout at maximum effort is an injury waiting to happen. Just knowing that you have that "extra" in you can really help you beat mental and physical fatigue later in a race.

2. Enjoy the easy runs. Almost every training plan includes easy runs each week. These runs are usually designed to keep your base mileage going and to help keep you limber in between quality workouts. Problem is many runners blast through the easy weekly runs as if they were quality workouts. If every run is a hard run, you greatly increase your chances of injury, peaking early, or mentally burning out. Also, running your weekly easy runs at maximum effort can put a damper on your weekly quality workouts and so they're not benefiting you as much as they should.

3. Respect your REST days. Forget the idea that rest is only for the weak. Rest is equally as important as that weekly tempo run or long run. Your body needs time to rebuild the muscle tissue that's broken down with each workout. If you never let your body rest, your fitness level can begin to decline affecting all of your runs, easy and/or quality. No rest is basically a fast forward to overtraining and injury.

[Click Here] to read tips 4-7 at Active.com. 

The Anytime Anywhere Speed Workout

This completed the second week working with my intermediate running group. Most of the participants are running 3-5 miles and they're ready for the next level. The 12-week program introduces the runners to a variety of "quality workouts" such as warm-up drills, fartleks, hills, and tempo runs. We meet twice a week and begin each workout with a 10-exercise core workout followed by a warm-up and some running drills, followed by the featured "quality workout" for the week. This week we did landmark and timed fartleks.

After Friday night's workout, I went home to feast on a crock pot of beanie weenies (turkey franks) that I fixed earlier in the day. I must have been really hungry, cause I ate two large bowls with two hunks of cornbread. The dining experience gave a whole new meaning to the term "fartlek." It had its benefits though, because for some reason I found myself enjoying the solitude of the family room later that evening. Sitting in front of the wide screen with the food network blaring, I soon drifted off to lala land where I dreamed that Rachael Ray had discovered my Rice-n-Bean Burrito recipe and was coming to the studio for a visit. This was one of those dreams so realistic that when you wake up you're not sure if it really happened or not. Of course the fact that Rachael Ray was coming to visit me should have been the immediate clue that it was just a dream, but one can be delusional if he wants, just for a little while, right?

Back to quality workouts and fartleks. Fartlek is a Swedish word for speed-play. Basically a fartlek is an informal interval thrown into a regular run. Sounds complicated, but all you do is speed up for a certain amount of time or distance during a regular run. They can be short (200-400m). They can be long (800m or 1/2mile). You can throw them in at the beginning, middle, or throughout. You can use landmarks to determine when you start and end the fartlek (i.e. run to the next block, or the next mailbox) or you can time them (run easy for 5 minutes and run fast for 1 minute). You're in control.

The other great thing about fartleks is that you don't need a track or a hill. No special location needed. The street right in front of your house will do. It's the perfect anytime, anywhere speed workout.

So why fartlek? Adding bursts of speed during a run is a great way to help increase your overall pace and endurance. It helps to increase your VO2Max (your body's ability to utilize oxygen at the muscle layer to make energy) and push out your lactate threshold (the point when you feel that burn in your legs). Also, if you've stagnated in your running and just can't seem to go faster or further, adding a weekly fartlek will soon have you out of that rut. Another cool outcome to a run with fartleks is looking at your time after you finish. You'll be amazed at how fast you just ran your usual 5-miler.

So, give it a try. Add some fartleks to one of your weekly runs. Who knows, you may even dream about Rachael Ray afterwards, or maybe that has to be in combination with a pot of beanie weenies.

Beach Running 101

This week I'm at the beach for the big family vacation. There's 12 of us (grandparents, my brother and his wife and family an my family). It's a summer tradition to make the trek to Emerald Isle, NC for a week of relaxation. My parents have been renting the same big house each year. Lots of fun.

Even though I'm on vacation, I try not to lag too much in my running. I usually don't run as much as during a regular week nor do I run as hard but I still like to get in a few runs. Running on the beach I've discovered, can be quite the workout.

Here's a few pointers I discovered while on the run.

RunnerDude's Beach Running Tips:
1. Put on sunscreen, a hat, and sunglasses. My sunglasses are prescription, so I have no choice, but even if you don't wear glasses, the shades will keep harmful UV rays from your eyes as well as help keep the wind from blowing sand in them.
2. Wear your normal running clothes. Don't run in your swimsuit. You may experience some chaffing which wouldn't be too pleasant the next time you hop in the ocean.
3. Unless you're adept at barefoot running, wear you running shoes and socks just as you would on a regular run. Even if you're fine with barefoot running, I wouldn't risk stepping on a shell or a piece of glass that someone has left on the beach. Actually, if you have them, your trail running shoes are probably your best bet for beach running.
4. Be prepared for a slower pace than your regular run. If it's windy like it was this morning, then you'll be a lot slower. Also, running in the sand, even the hard-packed sand by the water, tends to slow you down a little.
5. Try to run around low tide when there's more hard-packed sand on which to run. The hard-packed sand near the water makes for a more stable run.
6. Keep your eyes open for shell hunters and little kids darting back and forth. I almost took out a 4-year-old on my run.
7. Keep an eye out for holes! Abandoned sandcastles or ones that have been wiped out by the tide may have holes. If you're not careful, you'll be in one with a sprained ankle. Not a good thing for vacation time.
8. Probably a good idea to run by time rather than distance. Often that pier you plan to run to is much further away than you think. If your regular run is a 40-min 5-miler, plan on running 20 minutes out and then head back. You're on vacation. Who cares if it's not exactly 5 miles.
9. Just because you're at the beach doesn't mean you have to run on the beach. Check with the local information center to see if there are any local running routes or greenways for you to use. On Emerald Isle, NC, they've built a paved path that follows the main road which runs through some pretty shaded areas.
10. Shake the sand out of your shoes entering the house or you'll get yelled at.