As a Scottish athlete, the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow were a dream championship and a major target of mine. However, disaster struck in late 2013 when I suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon. I managed to get back to running by February 2014, at which point it was a race against the clock to improve my fitness and run a qualifying time. By April I was feeling confident. My times in training were close to where they had been from the previous two years and I’d put together a series of weeks of quality training. But then those telltale signs of fatigue started to creep in and my performance in training dropped considerably. All the catching up I had been doing had begun to take its toll!
I had two key races scheduled in four weeks’ time, so I decided to take three days of complete rest. No running, no swimming, nothing. I spent the rest of that week doing some easy running and strides before gradually building into more intense sessions the following week. This had a huge positive effect on my mood, sleeping patterns, general wellbeing, and my training quality. By the time my key qualifying races rolled around I was back running my target paces and feeling confident again. That season I not only qualified for the Commonwealth Games, but also ran my record mile time.
The most important part of any training programme is recovery as this is the only time where fitness can be gained. Every run and session you perform stresses your body, which requires recovery. As you recover, your body repairs the impact of these stresses to a point where it becomes slightly stronger than it was before – an improvement in fitness. If your body doesn’t recover before the next session, then the stresses of exercise continue to build up to the point where no fitness can be gained.
In fact, without enough rest, the body may not return to its starting point, and continuing to train under these conditions can even become detrimental to fitness. This situation usually ends up requiring significant time off from training to recover before you’re ready to start gaining fitness again.
Catching the signs of fatigue early can be the difference between a few days of reduced training and several weeks of time off, which could have a significant impact on your running targets. Here are the signs of fatigue that I would recommend catching early before it’s too late.
Daily Resting Heart Rate
The easiest way to keep track of your fatigue level is to monitor your resting heart rate every day and keep track of changes. In order to get reliable results, you need to perform the measurement under the same conditions – the same time, same body position, and same resting state. These factors can drastically affect your heart rate.
A good way to achieve this is to take the measurement as soon as you wake up in the morning. If you have a heart rate monitor, then it’s as simple as putting it on when you wake up and starting your watch for a minute. Without a heart rate monitor, you can use the old-fashioned finger-on-the-pulse method and record how many beats you count over a minute.
There will naturally be small variations between the measurements on a day-to-day basis, but an increase of around 7 beats per minute or more is a reliable sign that the body is working harder than usual. Maybe you’re overtraining, maybe you’ve picked up a bug. Either way, it’s best to take things easier until your resting heart rate returns to its normal range.
Trouble Sleeping
I know, it’s ironic, but when the body is especially fatigued it can be more of a struggle to fall asleep at night. When I’m in desperate need of a rest, I can be tossing and turning in bed for hours before I finally fall asleep.
Whilst struggling to fall asleep can be attributed to a lot of factors in life, its effect on performance is always negative. If it’s taking longer than usual to get to sleep for more than one night in a row, it’s probably a good idea to at least reduce the training load, if not take a few days of complete rest.
Bad Mood or Irritability
Dehydration, muscle fatigue, low blood sugar, and aches and pains are all well-known results of exercise. They’re also contributors to a negative mood. If you notice that you’re in a bad mood or feeling more irritable than you usually are, it’s possible that your body is having a hard time recovering from training.
Persistent Soreness
Its normal to wake up feeling a bit tight during a period of training, especially when starting up for the first time or after an extended break. Even in the middle of a season I would often wake up with a few aches, but they’d almost always go away once I was moving and hydrated.
If they persist past the first hour or so, there is a real chance your body needs some additional time to recover.
Summary
It can be hard to achieve the correct balance between training hard and giving the body a chance to recover. Sometimes it’s necessary to go through a tough period of training in order to reap the benefits.
Additionally, other factors in life can cause some of the effects described in this article, and in some cases training aids in relieving the stresses that life can bring. The symptoms described in this article are all indicators of harmful fatigue that could be setting in. Observation and reflection will help to determine the correct point to give the body additional rest and recovery, ensuring you’re running again in no time without persistent harmful effects.