“Ramping up” with training can be hazardous to an overly excited runner with not much experience (or professional assistance for handholding). Jumping into the next phase of my running habit (training for an ultra relay) had me in a tailspin of both excitement and crash and burn.

Oddly enough, when I found myself exhausted, confused and ready to throw my running shoes out the window… I recalled that I had a very similar feeling and experience the first time I trained for a marathon.

Could it be possible I had fallen victim (again) to the heinous overtraining demon? Taking a step back and recognizing that I had swept up a plan that was way more than I could chew got me back on track (after a few days off to regroup).

If you are in the middle of training for your first half marathon, marathon, or what have you, be warned of five of these overtraining signs before you find yourself a trampled, injured, frustrated or benched runner due to OTS (OverTraining Syndrome – yup, there’s even an official term with acronym for it!)

Heavy Legs – This is one of the most common complaints and surefire signs that you may be overtraining. Heavy legs (feeling like you have anvils attached to your legs when running) according to running coaches may indicate that you aren’t giving your legs enough recovery time (hence overtraining).

Exhaustion – When I started spending most of my day wondering how early I can get to bed without it being a social embarrassment, a little red flag went off in my head I might have been over doing it. Constant state of fatigue and changes in sleeping pattern also

Decreased Performance – Once I started my ramp up on training after my last race I did a tempo run (hard pace) for 6 miles and barely squeaked by at a pace a full minute and a half slower than relay race pace the weekend before.

Constant Soreness – If you are not following a reasonable training plan, you might find your muscles in a constant state of soreness due to lack of rest.

Lack of Enthusiasm – Dreading your next training run (at any point during the day)? Then you just might be overdoing it.

Here are some good other reads on the dangers of overtraining:

Runner’s World: Classic Signs You’re Overtraining

Lab Reports: Overtraining