Breaking Point

The past few weeks I've either been sick with a bad cold or fighting off some kind of sickness. leading up to the breaking point I Did a 16 mile trail run on 4-3-13, GoRuck Challenge on 4-6-13 that lasted 17 hours, did a nasty trail marathon on 4-14-13 in which I woke up at 3:50am to get an early start time, and loads of HIT and CrossFit WODs and hard miles in between those which were more like mini races and challenges than training. All this in combination with little sleep I was asking to put my body and immune system in harms way! I find that I am regularly on the verge of overtraining for these Ultra distance events. When I sign up for races or challenges like most people, I always have them in the back of my mind and they aid in the quantity and intensity of my workouts. The race named “Leadville Trail 100 Run” haunts my thoughts, and I find myself training a few times a day to combat these fears. The Fear of 100 miles over treacherous terrain at a starting point of over 10,000ft and a climax of 13,000ft elevation gives me Fear….without Fear you won’t succeed! It’s a balancing act you see. The trick is to find the limits you can take your body to in training without over training. Overtraining: is a physical, behavioral, and emotional condition that occurs when the volume and intensity of an individual's exercise exceeds their recovery capacity. They cease making progress, and can even begin to lose strength and fitness. Overtraining is a common problem in weight training, but it can also be experienced by runners and other athletes. I prefer to use the term CrossFit Endurance Athlete which are proficient at both lifting and running. I have been doing several CFE Workouts per day and am continuing with running-intervals-hills as well sometimes only giving myself 1-2 days off a week. I can normally recover quickly enough to keep up this hectic pace, but recently my sleep hasn’t been very good. As I stated above overtraining occurs when your volume and intensity exceeds your recovery capacity. With our beautiful 8 week old newborn son Tyce being “nocturnal” it makes it a tough battle to keep my recovery capacity up with my volume and intensity. Meaning I am not getting enough sleep to keep up with the crazy workouts that I am putting my body through. My wife Brittany is a Saint. She is still breast feeding and gets up regularly with him. I have the duties of transporting breast milk AKA “liquid gold” to the fridge downstairs. This happens between 2-4am. I wake up a few other random times during the night. This might not seem like a big deal, but in the world of recovery, it’s a very big deal! Most nights I get about 5-6 hours of solid sleep with a few of mixed light sleep and rest. This translates into a botched recovery time.. meaning I am not recovering at the relentless pace to catch up to the volume and intensity of my workouts.

*Am I doing what it takes to recover?
I eat a very clean Paleo diet high in proteins mixed with lots of nutritious greens and some fruits. I take loads of pills-supplements that aid in recovery and help with my immune system. Diet is probably the biggest piece to the puzzle other than sleeping. You must eat to perform! And you must eat to recover! The other important piece is stretching and mobility. I highly recommend http://www.mobilitywod.com/  ideas from mobility WOD I stretch well after every WOD and run! Using a foam roller I work out most the knots and demons if you will. Ice, ice, baby…I also use ice baths and cold showers to speed up my recovery to work out the lactic acid and other bad shit that seeps into your muscles during intense WODs/runs.

*Do I have “Overtraining Syndrome?”
There have been several clinical studies done on athletes with the overtraining syndrome. Exercise physiologic, psychological and biochemical laboratory testing have been done. Findings in these studies have shown decreased performance in exercise testing, decreased mood state, and, in some, increased cortisol levels -- the body's "stress" hormone. A decrease in testosterone, altered immune status and an increase in muscular break down products have also been identified. Medically, the overtraining syndrome is classified as a neuro-endocrine disorder. The normal fine balance in the interaction between the autonomic nervous system and the hormonal system is disturbed and athletic "jet lag" results. The body now has a decreased ability to repair itself during rest. Heaping more workouts onto this unbalanced system only worsens the situation. Additional stress in the form of difficulties at work or personal life also contributes. I had quite a few of the above characteristics, so I dug a little deeper to find out what I need to do to avoid ever feeling like this again.

*After research I really woke up and have taken pride in my rest days!
It appears that there are two forms of the syndrome. The sympathetic form is more common in sprint type sports and the parasympathetic form is more common in endurance sports. The results from various measurements taken during exercise physiologic testing differ between the two forms, but decreased overall performance and increased perceived fatigue are similar. In the parasympathetic form there may be a lower heart rate for a given workload. Athletes training with a heart rate monitor may notice that they cannot sustain the workout at their usual "set point." Fatigue takes over and prematurely terminates the workout. Regulation of glucose can become altered and the athlete may experience symptoms of hypoglycemia during exercise.

*How do I treat my battle tested and over trained body?
The treatment for the overtraining syndrome is rest. The longer the overtraining has occurred the more rest required. Therefore, early detection is very important. Luckliy for me I noticed this in the 3-4 week period!!!!!! If the overtraining has only occurred for a short period of time (e.g., 3 - 4 weeks) then interrupting training for 3 - 5 days is usually sufficient rest. I rested for a solid week! After this, workouts can be resumed on an alternate day basis. The intensity of the training can be maintained but the total volume must be lower. It is important that the factors that lead to overtraining be identified and corrected. Otherwise, the overtraining syndrome is likely to reoccur. The alternate day recovery period is continued for a few weeks and then an increase in volume is permitted. In more severe cases, the training program may have to be interrupted for weeks, and it may take months to recover. An alternate form of exercise can be substituted to help prevent the exercise withdrawal syndrome. I definitely don’t want my overtraining to get this bad! I thought of it lightly before it actually happened to me as most do. I got a little cocky and pressed on into harsh workouts and runs even though my body was telling no. I blame it on Volbeat’s version of the song “My body” the lyrics go like:
My body tells me no but I won't quit 'Cause I want more 'cause I want more My body tells me no but I won't quit Cause I want more 'cause I want more
I love this song and it’s basically deep-rooted into my brain during training! With my nasty experience I had with overtraining, I will be singing this song happily on my REST DAYS!!! Rest, recover, and live to TRAIN another day.