”When athletes follow a random training program, there is more chance that the athlete will over do one or more workouts and the risk for overtraining and injury becomes very high. This could result in an unplanned break or quite possibly in forfeiting the race season entirely. Recovery becomes extremely important during training, whether it is recovery days, weeks, or cycles. There is a limit to your capacity to endure and adapt to intense training. Once this threshold is crossed, your body fails to adapt and your performance declines rapidly. In fact, 10-20% of athletes who train intensively may fall prey to overtraining at some point during their endurance sport career. ” …
“There are many causes associated with overtraining but the primary cause is a poorly planned training program. The biggest culprit is a rapid increase in your training volume and intensity combined with inadequate recovery and rest.
I would go on to say another cause is when athletes fail to see or ask why a particular exercise is being conducted at a slow effort. Most athletes don’t see or understand the importance of “slow” training days. We feel as though we need to train hard and fast all the time to gain improvements. It is simply not true. We need to train “slow” to get faster from a metobalic stand point. If we can teach our system to be more efficient, we become faster. It took me years to understand this concept and I just wanted to “GO” and couldn’t understand why I wasn’t getting any faster.
If you have a coach, follow the plan. If you don’t have a coach, slow down and listen to your body. You need those recovery days and weeks that are built into your plan. You may need more than what is in the plan. Talk to your coach and let him/her know how you are feeling both physically and mentally.
Now get out there and train, but train and race smart!