Are you allowing yourself to recover?
To make progress, it’s essential that you challenge yourself. And It’s incredibly rewarding to see how much you can achieve if you keep pushing yourself more and more each session. But when does your consistent training and dedication start to hold you back, rather than push you forward?
It’s a common curse for marathon training. It can be hard to define the difference between when training is tough and when you are struggling. But if you are noticing that your performance is declining, despite an increase in intensity of your sessions, it’s a big sign that you are overtraining. But signs aren’t always training related.
Irritability
Unable to relax
Poor quality sleep
Lack of motivation
Increased occurrences of illness
Weight loss / weight gain
Irregular menstrual cycles
So, what is the key element to look out for? Taking your resting pulse first thing in the morning, before you are even out of bed, and take the average of 3-4 days. If during your training your heart rate is raised by more than 10%, your body is struggling to recover. You need a rest and need to adjust your training according to your fitness levels. Balance your training and make sure you have enough recovery time and allow your body to adapt.