“It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others” 

Or Rather; I’m supposed to be tapering this week?

      How can you tell if you’ve been over-training? In a sport like ultra-running, it’s not easy to discern between what’s over-training and what’s simply the normal fatigue that comes with running high mileage over an extended period of time. Ever since the 50 mile race in early January, I’ve been forcing the mileage; oblivious to the weather, the cold, the time, my physical condition, or my motivation level.  Running ultra distances and the training that it requires inherently wears you out but to advance in the sport you’ve got to push through some of that fatigue. A few of the symptoms of actual over-training are (1) elevated resting heart rate, (2) loss of appetite, (3) insomnia, (4) body weight changes.   

       So… there I am last night sitting in a Healthcare Ethics class after a hard running effort earlier that afternoon. I was a little tired but otherwise felt pretty good. The class was completely interesting and I was fully engaged. Suddenly, about 8:30 or so, I remember thinking “man...I feel beat” and I then caught myself nearly nodding off a couple of times. Finally, I started feeling really hot and thought maybe I should get up… my next memory is being shaken awake by some other students. What the hell?  I’m on the floor??  It was all pretty startling and everyone said I looked really pale. However, within ten minutes or so I felt normal again. The Professor was pretty forgiving and was just glad I was alright.  I don’t know if I’m over trained or not, but after the race I think a week or so off may be in order. Of course, my pride and/or dignity may need more than a week of recovery time!

       I’ve been feeling pretty fatigued lately but I haven’t displayed any of the aforementioned symptoms of over-training (passing out in class notwithstanding). It’s likely that my body is just adjusting to the increases in mileage that I’ve thrown at it. Gains in fitness may be as basic as stress overloading followed by recovery; I may have just learned the hard way to place more emphasis on the “recovery” part of that equation…Or, maybe civilian life is just making me weak!  

Well, completely lacking any semblance of a taper, I will now take on Psycho Wyco in the morning. With any luck I won’t pass out and can notch a fifth consecutive Wyco finish. Race Report should be up next week sometime.