Overtraining Part 2

So, where did we get to?

Well, once I'd established I was overtrained (not to mention pretty ill, too), there were two questions: how long had I been in this slump, and what did I need to do to recover? The two are inextricably linked as recovery depends very much on how long you've been overtrained for.

Triathletes are achievers. We may look for free time here and there – bike fits to aero helmets – but we also understand that the road to improvement goes through the towns of Dedication, Hard Work and Consistency (which, come to think of it, sound like the sort of towns that Westerns are set in).

This is, in many walks of life and training, good; but it means that when a triathlete suffers a bad result (as I did this weekend due to overtraining/illness), it's easy for them to do the maths and decide that they must need to train more. Why not? It seems logical. However, by doing so, we're just digging deeper and deeper. So, if you can't dig yourself out of a hole, what do you do? Just stop digging.

Looking back, I raced an Olympic distance race in the first week of Feb and did well, feeling good. I trained well that week, and did the Wadi Bih run the following weekend. Again, I felt OK, but to make up for the lack of normal Friday training that week, I put an uncharacteristically big day in the next day. I then started feeling run down and ill (stomach bug and flu-like symptoms) during that week but perked up enough to start the RAK Half Marathon, which I struggled with and, looking back, felt flat at. So, that's where I think the problem occurred which means I'd only been overtrained for a couple of weeks – good news.

That generally means around a week or so of total rest, a couple of days of active recovery (gentle runs/walks and spins on the bike that aren't hard enough to engender a 'training effect') then beginning to train again with shorter, harder sessions initially, adding time and distance gradually.

There are other things you can try to ease the OT syndrome too – staying well hydrated, proper nutrition and massages will all help you along the road back. For me, however, there's a slight difference – I'm not just overtrained, I'm ill too. So, armed with my newly-discovered 'sensible approach to triathlon', I made recovery my first priority and decided I wouldn't jump on to a bike, dive into a pool and don a pair of running shoes until I'd totally kicked this flu's ass.

But recovery isn't enough – I also want to put in some precautions to stop me making this mistake again. So, I've decided on some new rules. Key to these are understanding the theory of 'overcompensation' or exactly what happens when we train. I may be preaching to the choir here, but this has really helped me to get my head around the importance of rest and recovery. Put simply, training doesn't make us fitter – recovering from training does.

If I do a 5 hour bike ride and put my body under the stress of doing such a ride, that, in and of itself, doesn't make me fitter. In fact, it makes me less fit as it breaks down muscle etc... What makes me fitter is my body saying “Sweet effing Nora that hurt – I'm going to recover and, when doing so, I'm going to recover even stronger than I was before so that kind of stress never happens to me again.” Therefore, rest without recovery is just breaking down the body time after time.

So, the new rules state that, on my programme, I add recovery aids just as though they're training – whether that's 'protein shake and ice bath', 'wear compression shorts and socks today' or 'rest is essential this morning', it now features on my March programme.

My next rule is that, as someone who usually loves and embraces training sessions, if I feel down and unenthusiastic about two sessions in a row, I take a step back and take a day or two off – a bit of hard work and discomfort is always to be expected when you're training for triathlons and Ironman but my enthusiasm levels, I'm learning, are a remarkably accurate indicator of health and wellbeing.

As are my lymph glands. Annoyingly sensitive, they swell at the first sign of infection or virus. And when they do, in future I'll take note.

The final one I'm going to call my 12 hour rule. This only applies to big training days during the week but training and my working day should never exceed 12 hours. This is fine – my big midweek brick is usually a three hour session after a 9 hour working day. However, if that working day becomes 10 or 11 hours, then the session has to be missed, shortened or swapped up for another day accordingly.

So, there's my guide to overtraining – hope it's of use to some but really hope it's never of use to most. More than anything, the message I've taken from the past week or so is to be sensible rather than obsessive – we do this sport for fun, self-improvement, to socialise and for general enjoyment. Not to pay the rent of put kids through school. In the grand scheme of things, a week off just doesn't matter.