There is no such thing as over-training. Yes, it’s true, and I’ll repeat it – THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS OVER-TRAINING.

Now, I know that may sound strange, coming from a coach. Actually, it’s just another way of saying “Running will not kill you – you will pass out first”. The human body is a smart animal. It will stop before it gets injured. However, that only works if you listen to what your body is saying.

So what causes “over-training syndrome”, and what do coaches and athletes mean when they use the term “over-training”? Well, usually they mean “training too long”, “training too hard”, or training too often”. And why would you train too long, hard or often? Because you’re not listening to your body, that’s why. And that’s because training, of course, makes you fitter. Or does it?

All the books (and coaches) say, you should do lots of miles a week for lots of weeks to be able to run a particular race quickly. The training regime starts easy(ish) and gets tougher, adding miles and speed and sometimes sessions until you are training at a level that your body can only just take without breaking. Except that sometimes it does break, and incredibly nobody (that is, nobody) can tell you when that is going to happen.

Even more incredibly, no-one tells you the most important piece of information you will ever learn about training – your body does not get stronger or faster or tougher whilst you are training. In fact, it does not improve in any way. Your body only improves whilst you are resting.

There is an old saying in running, which some of you will have seen from Tim Noakes’ book “Lore of Running”, and that saying goes: “There is a time to run, and a time to rest. It is the true test of an athlete to get them both right”. The essence of athletic development is “Work, then Rest”, and both are vital to the process. If you work and don’t give your body time to recover from training stress, it cannot improve for the stress of the next session, and will steadily break down until it can take no more, and up pops an injury.

Yet no matter how hard you train, for how often or for how long, your body can take the stress, as long as it has enough rest. And how much is enough? Simple, really – just follow the ten minute rule. When you go out training, after the first ten minutes’ running, ask yourself “How do I feel?”. If you feel fine, keep running. If you don’t, ease off until you do. Ask yourself again ten minutes later and ten every ten minutes after that.

It doesn’t have to be exactly ten minutes, it just has to be around about then. And why ten minutes? - because that’s how long it takes your body to begin to warm up. After the first ten minutes, your temperature is raised, your blood flow is enhanced and your cardiovascular system is starting to function more efficiently. Your muscles, tendons and ligaments are warmer and your range of movement is easier to reach – you feel looser and more fluid. You begin to flow along the road.

By now you should know if you feel okay – if you’re not getting that warm, loose, fluid feeling, then relax and slow down. Give yourself ten more minutes. If you still feel stiff, awkward, unhappy with your running, then you may want to stop and go home – come back another day.

It is never wrong to stop running because you want to – it is only wrong to stop running because you have to, because you pushed your body too hard. John Walker, the great New Zealand mile runner, is one of the greatest athletes of all time. He is famous for having run under 4 minutes for the mile, more than one hundred times.

He is less famous, yet equally respected, for his attitude to training. Whenever he went out for a training run, if he began to realise that it felt wrong, he would stop and go home. Anyone who can run four hundred miles in under a minute must know a thing or two about running, and john Walker’s attitude is what made him great – if it feels wrong, don’t do it.

That doesn’t mean, of course, that you shouldn’t push yourself. Every great running achievement came from the athlete pushing himself or herself beyond the limits they thought they had. Yet those times need to come in races, not in training. When we race, we set ourselves goals that mean we may break in the act of achieving them. We shouldn’t break in the process of getting to the start line.

Ten minutes is all it takes to let your body warm up, and another ten minutes is all it takes to realise whether or not you’re on the edge of doing too much. Remember, there is no such thing as over-training – it’s under-resting that’s the enemy. Don’t let under-resting wreck your running life.

Enjoy your running.

John Williams
UK Athletics qualified coach and sports massage therapist
E-mail: jwrunning@hotmail.com

3rd December 2005