Too Much Is More Than Enough
There’s a friend in one of my running chat groups whose long runs have been, in her words, more like drama runs. She does well during the week, but her long runs have been increasingly difficult. Last weekend, the drama started early and wouldn’t stop until she quit at mile 11. Then more drama ensued.
“What is wrong with me?” she asked her tens of thousands of followers on TikTok.
I had a suspicion, and after she texted me her plan, it confirmed it.
She was doing too much.
There’s a common misperception among runners that all training is good. Even experienced runners believe that the more miles they run, the better. This is wrong, and it’s wrong in the worst way: Too much training is worse than not enough.
You don’t even need to get injured for overtraining to hurt you. It can wear you down so much that any runs beyond a few miles will feel miserable. Some of the best runners in the world develop overtraining syndrome, which can knock them out for months.
Jen, @thisiowamom on TikTok, has quite a story. She’s training for her first marathon not even a year removed from her first half after losing nearly 200 pounds. Yes, the extra zero is on purpose. But her marathon plan has her running 15, 15, 16, 17 and 18 miles five weekends in a row and, for good measure, throws in an 8-mile run a couple days before the long run.
This is way too much for a first-time marathoner. I think it’s too much for an intermediate marathoner, in fact.
The miles themselves aren’t the problem, per se, but there’s no break every two weeks to allow her body to recover.
We want our bodies to get worn down. That’s the purpose of training. Sometimes, however, we tend to forget that recovery, not the training, is what makes us stronger. That’s how our body adapts.
Long runs take much larger chunks out of us than we realize. You can feel good during the week, as you run your five-mile runs, all while your body continues to try to adjust to that long run you just pasted on it last week. Back to back to back long runs every weekend gives your body no time to adapt. It will constantly struggle to perform. Eventually, what happened to Jen will happen to you.
Jen’s plan had her running the most she’s EVER run in her life five weekends in a row. There’s nothing wrong with you, Jen. You’re just tired.
And yet, anxiety has a way of telling us that we’re weak for skipping a long run or even just reducing it. How am I supposed to run a marathon, you’ll ask yourself, if I can’t even do the long run before me? But you can, and you will, if you train smart and then taper before your race.
We have a saying: It’s better to be 20 percent undertrained than 10 percent overtrained.
Jen did a good job listening to her body. She quit after mile 11 on her 18-miler. She hated it, and it still bothers her, but it the smart thing to do. She will do a half marathon next weekend and then resume her normal training. I also told her to ditch the 8-mile run during the week.
If you’re feeling worn down, burnt out or sick of your long runs, reduce the miles you normally run, especially on your long run. You aren’t being weak. You’re allowing your body to race strong.