Sometimes your training doesn’t pay off.
It isn’t a matter of not training hard enough – you’ve trained consistently, performed speed workouts, endured long hours on the road – only to clock slower times.
Every training session – even the easy ones – is like slogging through mud.
All passion has drained away and what’s left is the desire to binge watch tv.
It’s the dreaded running burnout.
This happens to the best of athletes – even those who seem like they have an endless well of motivation – but yet they keep going.
So what’s happening and how do they do it?
What leads to running burnout?
Everyone handles training differently, but one thing is certain – your body and mind can’t handle intense training loads before it rebels because it craves recovery.
Physical and mental exhaustion, or burnout, comes from stressing yourself without enough time to rest.
The rigors of training, or any hard physical effort, pushes you to become a better athlete by stressing your body. This stress creates micro tears in your muscles.
When you stop moving, your muscles repair, rebuild, and become stronger to handle more training.
But, with excessive training, your body lacks time to recover before the next session, so it’s in a constant weakened state, leading to fatigue.
Now, cumulative fatigue helps train the body to endure long distances, but it becomes a problem when you feel irritable, tired, and unmotivated.
When this happens, your training suffers.
“I don’t want to stop running because I’ll lose my running fitness.”
Rest and recovery allows the body to take advantage of hard training, but it’s difficult to pull away to merely…rest.
Because the fear of losing fitness is real problem.
But those fears might be slightly exaggerated. So let’s look at a few things that’ll reduce those concerns.
It’s true you’ll lose some fitness, but it’s not as much as you think. And, the good news is you’ll regain your conditioning in a few weeks.
If you’ve been training for four to six months, your V02 1 max decreases by about 6% after two weeks and 19% after nine weeks. 2
Beginner athletes have a smaller endurance base and will lose fitness slightly faster.
You’ll see a decrease in fitness after two weeks, which means after two weeks, it’ll take about about two to eight weeks 3 of training to regain fitness.
Experienced runners shouldn’t worry about losing fitness and taking a two week break.
How to recover from running burnout
If you want sustainable success and avoid running burnout in the future, you must give yourself permission to rest.
Even elite athletes schedule rest – sleep, massages, and stretching – into their plans.
The leaps and bounds I’ve made over the last several years have come from outside the training environment and how I choose to recover.
During a workout you’re breaking down soft tissue and really stressing your body.
How you treat yourself in between workouts is where you make gains and acquire the strength to attack the next one.”
Deena Kastor, Competitor magazine
If you’re suffering from running burnout try:
1// Running easy efforts, also called active recovery sessions, to increase blood flow and flush out lactic acid. Or, try cross-training, such as cycling, for the cardio benefits without the high-impact nature of running.
2// Leaving the watch and heart rate monitor at home and enjoy running without the pressure to perform against the clock.
3// Scheduling regular massages to reduce stress, inflammation, and knots.
4// Sleeping even more as your pituitary gland releases a growth hormone that stimulates tissue growth and repair.
Don’t feel like you have to get moving again until you feel the urge to do so.
SHOP RUNNING RECOVERY TOOLS
Sources
Losing Running Fitness: A Scientific Look at How Much You’ll Slow Down When Not Able to Run, RunnersConnect.net
Detraining: Truth about losing fitness, Cycling Weekly
Ride Hard, Recover Harder , Bicycling.com
Footnotes
- VO2 max is the maximum amount of oxygen you can use during intense exercise. It’s considered an indicator of endurance and fitness. ↩
- Losing Running Fitness: A Scientific Look at How Much You’ll Slow Down When Not Able to Run: https://runnersconnect.net/losing-running-fitness/ ↩
- Losing Running Fitness: A Scientific Look at How Much You’ll Slow Down When Not Able to Run: https://runnersconnect.net/losing-running-fitness/ ↩