Too hard, too fast, too hard, too long… These people are followers of a false belief that says the harder and longer I train, the stronger I will be. That it pays more to train too much than too little. Attention danger.
With Dorian Deflandre, successful trainer at Herve AC (Clément Deflandre, Arnaud Collard, Régis Thibert, Simon Jeukenne, etc.), we review some strong concepts, in order to rethink certain things and, above all, to allow certain people to avoid injuries and boredom.
Is it better to run too little than too much to perform well?
“For the average athlete, you must not go overboard in training. Like the Crêtes de Spa is in three weeks, I'm going to hit the nail on the head these three weeks to be in good shape. It's wrong. We will end up with fatigue, overload, overtraining, even injuries.”
“Any increase in volume must be reasoned.”
”Let’s agree, increasing volume is often, at least for 85% of runners, beneficial. But this increase must be reasoned and, above all, progressive. Moreover, whether for an elite athlete or a beginner, this notion of progressiveness must be considered as a key word. Whether for increasing the volume or decreasing it. Let's take an excellent runner who trains a lot, like 10 to 12 times a week, if he increases to 2 or 3 sessions per week, he risks triggering injuries identical to someone who suddenly increases his load. It's surprising, but that's how it is. Any sudden change in training load is bad…”
What is the right progression in training planning?
“We are going to talk about a 10% increase in volume. Let's imagine training cycles of three weeks where you increase little by little, followed by a week of relaxation: the ideal is not to increase your load by more than 10% from month to month. You start with 50 kilometers per week, then the following month you increase to 55…”
Symptoms that should alert a runner to possible overtraining
“Overtraining involves large volumes of training. For small volumes, it will be more of a bad workout to talk about. Having a higher heart rate than usual when getting up, having heart rate zones that move higher than usual, being tired very often, no longer feeling like going to train… these are all signs that should generally alert you. ”
The risks of overtraining?
“Clearly, the injury. If you pull the thread too much, it may break. Then come weariness, disgust, or even worse, sports burnout. ”
