Coming to Grips with Overtraining

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I don’t have an actual diagnosis of overtraining. What I do have is a cluster of symptoms, and an itchy feeling in the back of my brain that I need to take some time off (while having the compulsive urge to push on.)

Here’s a bit of a time line.

Early March, I purchased a new pair of running shoes after more than a few months of not running, but primarily doing elliptical training at the gym. That was just over a month and a half ago. While I was doing regular work-outs at the gym, with cardio and strength training, I know I wasn’t really pushing that hard, even if I was going for 45 minutes of cardio. With my new running shoes, I started back with my 30 minute walk/run, doing about 2.15 miles in 30 minutes, at best. This is almost average for me.

I can’t remember exactly when I got bitten by the bug to train – maybe it was just the neighborhood 5K that I did a month ago. (Was it only a month ago?!) In a matter of weeks, I doubled my mileage and duration. I didn’t slowly amp-up, no – I went straight for it. I have become faster, and just yesterday did a painful 20 minute jog under a 11 min/mi pace! I was even walking faster! However, I woke up this morning (actually, throughout the night) to my muscles being sore and tight again, and feeling a general sense of anxiety and dread. I loved the calorie burn pay-off I was getting from all that training I was doing. However, the flood of adrenaline to my body from training is not loving my psyche.

Running makes me feel like a superwoman when I’m in the moment, and the run is good. My body feels battered right now, my psyche feels battered, I’m wanting to quit running, while simultaneously wanting to have the strength and will to hit the pavement.

Overtraining has the symptom of decreased performance – and I don’t know if I’ve got that yet (although yesterday’s run that didn’t last more than 20 minutes may count.) I certainly have some of the physiological and psychological effects. (TMI: My period was over 10 days late, which can be another symptom of overtraining.) I’m frustrated with my body right now, the same way I get frustrated when I’m sick. My body is just not wanting to cooperate with what my mind wants to do.

Maybe this is an opportunity to be still, and be mindful. Maybe, just maybe, I need to take a week off. A real week. Not just a couple days (as I did earlier this week.)

What will I write about here? Not training? I’m sure that my 3 readers will read anyway. For everyone else that might stumble upon this blog – stay tuned.

Recommended links:

Overtraining and Injury Prevention
PDF Overtraining and Amenorrhea
Preventing Overtraining

Earth Day Consumption

Posted on Posted in Deliberate Consumption4 Comments

A few weeks ago I was looking for another 5K to join, maybe at the end of April. I was surprised to see one of the “eco-friendly” events was connected to Dow Chemical. Seriously? Run for Water. Clean water is VERY important – and I can get behind the cause of clean water to those who don’t have it. I’ve mentioned before that Americans have the luxury of clean water, FROM A FAUCET, that they can drink and bathe in with no ill effects.

Perhaps I shouldn’t be too judgmental about Dow Chemical. I’m prejudiced, maybe, because of their past implications in environmental toxicity and human suffering (you know, like Agent Orange “the government made us do it!”). Or their continued role with plastics (some of which end up in our oceans or are downcycled, at best in the developing world.) Should I applaud companies that were once known as the big baddies of pollution embracing “green” causes?

You know, like when Burt’s Bees, once known for their very little plastic (caps on toner bottles ONLY), and aluminum, recycled paperboard and glass packaging). A few years ago (before being purchased by Clorox) 80% of the company was bought by a private equity firm, many of their holdings being in packaging. This is when I noticed an increase in their distribution (as well as the repackaging of many of their products into plastic containers.

Burt’s Bees is still one of the highest rated companies when it comes to their environmental friendliness and natural ingredients. (You used to be able to EAT most of their products, they were that safe. Seriously.) If I remember correctly, when they were purchased by Clorox, Clorox announced that they would be taking a cue from Burt’s Bees and greening up some of their every-day products.

Greenwashing is a big business. I’m sure that large companies who probably didn’t care at all 20 years ago about their environmental impact care now, and maybe that is making a difference, despite their continuing to play a part in polluting the earth. Global warming aside, we can agree that clean water is an issue, and industrial pollution and insufficient sanitation is a measurable fact that has an impact on human society and the food sources we depend on.

On this Earth Day, I’m trying to be mindful of my consumption. I’m surrounded by plastic containers, and wonder what more I can do to make my positive impact more than it is. The key, as it always has been, is to curb consumption. Don’t buy what you don’t need or won’t use. Don’t buy what is unnecessary. (Will a good kitchen knife, kept in great shape, with some knife skills classes if you’re not skilled, do better than a handful of patented gadgets that all do something that you can do with one good knife?) Think about where everything in your life will end up one day. Landfill? Ocean? Your children’s house? Your garden? India? China? Out of sight shouldn’t equal out of mind.

You can’t consume your way out of consuming. Every choice we make has an impact, even if we don’t see it.

Calling the Run

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I’ve been a diver since around February 2008 when I was certified by Girl Diver. One of the most important rules of diving (aside from diving with a buddy) is that anyone can call a dive, for any reason, at any time. This means that if you get geared up, and don’t even step in the water, you can say, “I’m not feeling it.” Or maybe (like happened to me once) you get stung by a jellyfish IN THE FACE, and you think, “Ow, I’m not going to continue this dive, I’m going up.”

Of course, running is a solo thing for me. There’s no turning to my buddy and saying, (signing) that I’m not sure I want to continue the run. There’s no one saying back to me, “Hey, let’s end this (run).” So there I was, after a pasta meal, 2 miles under my belt already and a good pace, and I was getting serious waves of nausea and stomach pain.

I’ve never had that kind of pain before – my husband complains of such things, though, when he exercises on a full stomach. It’s never been a problem with me – but then again, I’ve not been running with this kind of intensity before, and also – my Garmin needed to be charged, and was possibly being inaccurate with my heart rate.

Oops.

I ended up walking for the last 9 or so minutes of my 30 minute run. I also ended up skipping the kick-off for the Team in Training. The first run with them is Saturday, and I don’t plan on missing that. Here’s hoping tomorrow’s run will go a bit more smoothly.

Barbara Kingsolver Ticks Off Domain Squatter

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I saw this in The Stranger’s Slog this morning that kingsolver.com currently has a rather rude message for those looking for Barbara Kingsolver’s website.

It turns out that the man who is being forced to give up the domain http://www.kingsolver.com is a man in China, and lost the doman to Barbara Kingsolver in arbitration. The website claims that his domain is being stolen from him, and that he’s just a good, hardworking father in China. However, the details in the arbitration say otherwise. The long and short of it being that Barbara Kingsolver’s people accidentally let the domain registration lapse, then the domain was promptly squatted on, and once purchased by the guy in question, had hyperlinks to sites about Ms. Kingsolver, making money from those links.

Yup. Ms. Kingsolver has destroyed his “PC problems solving company.”

And who in the world, with a small, local business in China (poor grammar and spelling as well, for a person claiming to be a European English-speaker), pays over $1,000 for a domain for their “PC problems solving company”? I can’t believe that King Solver is such a hot name for such a company in China. I also can’t believe such a company is worth enough to spend over $10 for the domain name.

I could be wrong, but seriously.

Rest Day Healing and Charity Binders

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I nearly missed my scheduled acupuncture appointment all together today, but I’m glad I didn’t. My body is slowly starting to feel better after the punishing doubling of my training over the past couple weeks. The training exhausted me, and I’m convinced threw my hormones out of whack. Slow and steady! Embrace it!

On my way out of my appointment I passed Westlake Center where the usual charity binder guys were trying to get my attention. Usually I tell them kindly that I’m not interested, other times, I let them know that I’m unemployed and volunteer my time at a local non-profit, but today I shouted “I have $3200 to raise for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!”

He stood bugeyed and then responded, “How are you going to do that?”

“I don’t know, I was thinking of grabbing s binder and doing what you do.”

He said, “It works.”

I don’t know about it working for me.