One of the least recognized, but potentially most harmful situations that serious endurance athletes often land themselves into is the overtraining syndrome. The overtraining syndrome quite simply means the athlete has done too much. This is often due to the fact that almost all endurance athletes suffer from the same universal misconception: the fear of doing too little. Yet practical experience from countless experts in the field and scientific research evidence both point in the opposite direction. Instead of doing too little, most athletes tend to overdo things.

Since the days of Bill Bowerman, one of history's most famous running coaches, every running crack agrees that a hard day of training must be alternated with one or two easy days, where the training effort is markedly reduced. This recovery period is crucial as subtle muscle damage caused by intensive training is given the chance to be repaired. And in the process of healing the body makes sure to grow back more muscle tissues than before, so that it can withstand the shock of future intensive training. This is how the body adapts itself to the impact of intensive training and becomes stronger and faster.

When an athlete thinks he can run, swim or bike at maximum or sub-maximum intensity for almost every day of the week, he is well on his way to become overtrained. After each intensive training session the body is pushed into a zone of fatigue. During the recovery phase the body rests up so that it drops down to its original level of fitness. If this recovery is inadequate or even non-existent, the body does not fully come out of the fatigue zone and every other intensive training session pushes it even farther into fatigue, making it ultimately impossible to fully recover. Yet nature has its ways of dealing with our overzealous and often stubborn inclinations. Often at this stage an injury will occur, forcing the runner to stop training altogether so that the body gets its much needed rest. But there are other signs of overtraining as well:

- Fatigue. The overtrained athlete is much more tired after his training than usual. Even a moderate training session leaves him exhausted. His muscles feel shaky and agitated.
- Decrease in speed and difficulty to maintain normal training pace. The athlete is forced to decrease his cruising speed to a much slower pace.
- Difficulty sleeping. Although the athlete is exhausted from his heavy training he has problems getting to sleep and may wake up at irregular intervals during the night.
- Weight loss. The athlete loses weight which he cannot normally account for.
- Lack of enthusiasm. Training loses its enjoyment and the athlete dreads going outdoors for his daily run. He loses his "joie de vivre" as other areas of his life also suffer from his lack of inspiration.
- Heavy legs. There is a constant feeling of sluggishness and tiredness in the legs which doesn't seem to fade.
- Morning heart rate is higher than usual by about 5-10 beate per minute.

The only remedy for overtraining is rest. Depending on the seriousness of the case this period can vary from 4 weeks at the minimum to many months in a worst case scenario. As a rule of thumb once the athlete regains his enthusiasm and joy to start running again the recovery period is at an end.

The difficulty about overtraining is diagnosing it early enough and being aware of the early signs. Often overtraining follows a period of increased fitness and good shape, which makes it a real trickster. The athlete is lured into a false sense of invincibility, his smooth running and fast recovery makes him feel he can do anything he wants. Often he ends up doing too much and very quickly overtrains himself.

As long as you monitor yourself closely and are alert on the early signs you can prevent impending disaster. Unfortunately conscientious self-monitoring is rare in athletes. Yet it is a virtue well worth developing. It might mean the difference between a long and successful career or a short and disappointing one.

Abhinabha Tangerman is a freelance writer and marathon runner from The Hague, The Netherlands. His current P.B. for the marathon is 2:43, which he hopes to improve in the near future. Abhinabha is a member of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team