when more is too much

Since the start of 2012 I have been working behind the scenes with a number of our young athletes.  They all bounced into our first meeting with large ambitions, boundless energy but slightly ‘broken’.  Injuries, sickness and fatigue!
 
Here I would like to share a story.  In 2010, during Find Your Feet’s early days I had a lovely young guy, Josh, who approached me for some advice.  Having grown up on King Island and only recently moved to Hobart, Josh was keen to develop his running.  His initial goal was to complete the Flinders Island 30km race that was in about four months time.  However, Josh was broken. 
 
‘I find that I have all this energy at the beginning of the week and go hard on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and sometimes Thursday but then have to have the rest of the week off because I am too tired at the end of the weeks.’
 
 I am sure we can all see the error in Josh’s ways.  Going hard for four days straight and expect to be able to keep this going?  Some slight alterations to Josh’s training has seen him recently become one of Tasmania’s most elite senior runners.
 
At some stage we all fall into the trap of thinking more is better.  More training, more regimented nutrition, more competition, more work, more study, more friends… our personal list of ‘mores’ is almost as long as our list of ‘shoulds’.  Like everything, there is a plausible balance where one has to do more to get more out of oneself.  But past this fuzzy threshold lies a grey world of potential fatigue, injury, sickness and winter-blues.  Not only this, but like Josh, we seem to stop thinking straight, get in a rat-race cycle, and not be able to work out why things start to fall apart.
 
So how can we avoid falling into this trap?  How can we define that perfect balance where optimal enjoyment, health and performance lie?   I believe the answer to this lies in excellent planning and preferably, with the assistance of a great coach.
 
When a new athlete starts with me, it almost always seems to be at a point in their lives when they have dozens of balls in the air or are faced with a tough decision.  What to do at university next year? How to come back from injury? How to balance training when I begin my new job?  Then add in family, friends, training, competition, first time on a national team… it quickly becomes overwhelming.  I call this the Much Syndrome.  Although I know for certain that I am the greatest sucker for ‘doing more’, when I step back and reflect I realize that there is a serious equation at play: when things near the level of too much, we begin to feel we have to do more.  Therefore, my first coaching advice I give is to have a rest.  This means one to three weeks of catching up – sleep, gentle exercise, time at home and work or study.  This remedy is amazing!
 
Following a rest period, the clarity of the mind is amazing.  Suddenly my athletes have a renewed sense of purpose and their energy is infectious.  We may even begin to see huge jumps in their level of performance without any changes to their training.  I attribute this to improved concentration, logical thinking and physical adaptation following their previous training.
 
The second stage of overcoming the Much Syndrome is creating a good plan.  Very few of my athletes seemed to plan ahead.  Not any more!  In order to create a plan we use a spreadsheet that covers every week of the year.  This is how our plan evolves:

1. The first thing to be added to the planner is work or study commitments.  For my athletes, these always take precedence.  Further to this, the brain uses 90% of the body’s energy at rest and so during times of increased concentration requirements, the physical energy expenditure should be decreased.
2. The next consideration is competitions.  All possible events are added to the planner.  Therefore, we can always see when events are coming up, where they are and how much time we have to prepare.
3. We then add in a weekly wave-form training schedule.  The trough between the waves is our rest week - easy, gentle active recovery work.  Then as the wave begins we have an easy week, a moderate week and crest with a hard week.  The difference between the easy and hard weeks is the intensity or volume of the training.  We try to avoid significant changes to both!
4. Next comes a daily wave form in the training schedule.  The trough between the waves is our rest day.  Rest days involve complete or active rest.  Then as the wave begins we have an easy day, a moderate day and a hard day.  An easy day is usually cross-training or light jogging.  A moderate day may be a longer run.  A hard day is usually high intensity training such as intervals or fartlek.​

As I have s​een with Josh and many of my other runners, big improvements can be made by having a bit of rest, planning life’s commitments into your training, and not being afraid to make some changes.  Enlisting the help of a coach who can help you with planning your weeks and reigning you back when you begin to look fatigued will help you stay on track to achieving everything that you are capable of becoming.  Remember, coaching is not just a privilege of the elite.  Having a coach to help you balance life is often even more important for those amazing senior athletes defying age!