I’ve been walking that fine line of training recently. Between my own training, which was going very well, and joining my daughter for her off-season training, things were getting pretty intense.
Through volumes I haven’t hit in probably a decade or more and workouts at paces I haven’t hit in years, I was building very good fitness. I was feeling great, strong, fit, invincible. Then, I believe I went just a touch too far.
Fortunately, I caught it very early. I stopped a workout short when it wasn’t going well, then backed off as much as felt reasonable for a week and a half, going into my first race of the year.
I then went into the race not quite sure what to expect. I did believe I caught the overtraining early enough to avoid the worst results. I knew I was very fit from the great training that came before it. However, would I pay the price for taking things a bit too far or did I catch it and correct course soon enough?
As it turns out, early detection and immediate action paid off. I had the best race I’ve run in at least a handful of years. I ran 5 miles at a pace that was at or better than what my 5K pace was just last year. I’m very happy with how this race went.
More importantly, I’m happy that I caught the warning signs early enough and immediately acted on them. Things could have gone very poorly if I hadn’t acted immediately.
The lesson here is to pay attention to your body’s signals and be willing to act immediately if something doesn’t seem right. This is incredibly important especially when everything seems to be going right and you’re feeling invincible. When things are going your way and you feel like you’re making big gains, this is actually when you’re most vulnerable because you’re riding that fine line between big gains and injury or burnout. So, if things are going better than expected, be extra vigilant to ensure you don’t cross that line that leads to injury or burnout.