Underrecovered = Overtrained

Overtraining is defined as a physical, emotional and/or physical state that results from exercising at a volume or intensity that exceeds the body's ability to recover. The early symptoms include, but are not limited to, persistent fatigue, irritability, injury susceptibility, persistent muscle soreness, impaired performance and lack of motivation.

Typically the state of overtraining is related to significantly increasing your training volume, while not allowing your body enough time to recover. In endurance athletes, you will see then when they go from 5 or 6 training sessions per week, to all of a sudden hitting 2-a-days, or maybe they will go 3 or 4 straight weeks of training 7 days per week.

I would argue that one could also experience these same symptoms of overtraining without making any change to their training volume or intensity at all. How would you do that? Don't allow your body adequate recovery from your currently established routine. I know this is true, because I am experiencing it right now.

While it is true that I am currently training for a 50-mile ultramarathon, in all actuality, I haven't changed my training routine all that much. Now that I am following the CrossFit Endurance program, volume is not a real issue anymore. My current program has me doing CrossFit 4-5 times per week and CrossFit Endurance running 2-3 times per week. My total weekly running mileage does not exceed 15-17 miles.

I think the seeds of my underrecovery/overtrained condition were really sown last weekend. The week prior was a solid week at Oceanside CrossFit. We all hit it pretty hard and it culminated in doing Fight Gone Bad, which was the subject of my last post. I PR'd by 35 points, and I was quite happy with that. On Sunday I hit a hard CrossFit Endurance run of 3 x 5K trying to hold within 2 minutes of my 5K race pace, with 5 minutes of recovery between reps. I was able to run 19:37, 19:31, 19:47 respectively. Then Sunday night I played in a flag football double header. I actually performed pretty well considering I had just finished that run a couple hours before my first game. Monday I made a rest day to recover from all of the weekend's activities.

On Tuesday I was back in the gym and I did the WOD named "Nancy". This WOD consists of 5 rounds for time of 95# overhead squats and a 400m Run. I finished the workout in 12:08, which was a 44 second PR. Happy with the time, but I know that I could have gone under 12:00. During the OHS I just didn't feel that snap that I normally do. I could tell that I wasn't recovered from the weekend.

Wednesday I wasn't able to go to the gym because of a work conflict, but I did hit a good CrossFit Endurance run over lunch. I did a 1 minute ladder out on the trails behind my clinic. The ladder works this way: run hard x 1 min, rest 1 min, run hard x 1 min, rest 50 sec...and so on all the way down to 10 seconds rest and then right back up the ladder finishing with 50 seconds rest and run hard 1 min. I held pretty consistent distances of .15-.18 miles each rep.

Thursday at OCF was heavy deadlift and Jerk. This was where I could tell that the wheels were really starting to come off. I was only able to successfully deadlift 309# and my PR is 323#. I attempted 331# twice, but I just couldn't move that damn bar. For the jerk, I didn't even attempt to go heavy. I have been having a slight left shoulder issue for a couple of weeks and I didn't feel like pushing it, considering how I was already feeling. So I did a few reps at 135# and then one at 155# and called it a night.

Now on to Friday. At lunch I did a Tabata run on my Alter-G treadmill at work. That thing is just damn sweet. I put it down to 90% bodyweight and cranked out the Tabata at 11.6mph. It was challenging, but I know that's not the upper limit of my Tabata on that treadmill. Friday afternoon I got over to the gym and did the WOD of 800m run,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 of 95# power cleans and Broad Jump Push-ups then another 800m run. This was the final straw for me. Typically this is my kind of workout. I can usually really push the pace on the run, go hard on the cleans and then really crank out the BJPU's. Not on Friday, right from the first set of 10 BJPU's I knew this wasn't going to be a stellar performance. I just had no pop in my legs and my lungs did not want to play. I pushed through and finished in just over 16 1/2 minutes.

Now, this condition is also compounded by the fact that I have not been getting enough sleep. Typically I go to bed around 10pm and during the week I get up at 5:30, so to start off that's only 7 1/2 hours of sleep, if I were to sleep that entire time. Factor in staying up too late to watch American Idol on Tuesday and Wednesday and goofing around on the computer Thursday night. Also consider that I'm a tosser and turner and I get up a couple times per night to go to the bathroom and we're looking at something closer to 6 1/2 - 6 hours per night. On top of all that training, I can definitely tell that I am suffering because of it.

So for the weekend, I am laying low, sort of. I am helping out as an assistant trainer at the CrossFit Level 1 certification down at CrossFit San Diego. It has been fun. I was worried that my underrecovered condition would affect my "performance" as a trainer, but I think I was able to step it up when I needed to. I also skipped the trainer WOD during lunch and just sat back and enjoyed my Mmmm...Good Meal. I think I will skip the WOD again today and look forward to trying to hit a good run at lunch tomorrow. Also, I'm going to bed early tonight!