Ahem, yes, hello. My name is Tanya and I’m a running addict and chronic over-trainer.
It’s been three months since I dug myself out of an overtraining hole, and I am grateful to my Coach for keeping me on the straight and narrow!
Sound familiar anyone?? come ooonnnn, I know we’d make a brightly coloured, highly branded, sweaty, muddy, talk-for-hours about trails, support group if we all owned up. This is a safe place here 🙂
I’ve now been on a consistent training program since my last 100-mile race and the benefits have been noticeable and quantifiable.
I am running less, but more consistently and it’s working.
The bonuses – the niggles are under control, I’m not overly fatigued (that was the story of my life!), and I’ve been feeling good this week getting back into recovery training post my big training weekend last weekend.
The hard bit? running less…and this is where the addiction comes in!
Tell me about a run for a day out on the trails, 80km+ just for fun, and all over it like a kid on a cupcake….talk to me about a multi-day fastpack, *be still my beating heart* – now you are talking my language, when and where, let’s make it happen!!
Long missions are my bag baby, and balancing the desire to get out and explore with a need to not break myself is all part of the challenge *sigh* (if only I had a cyborg body, with bionic muscles and joints that fear seawater more than fatigue…..I digress, a lot….)
So, how to overcome this addiction and keep myself running for the long term and not just the here and now?
Planning and overcoming the dreaded FOMO!! …damn you social media.
I find that if I have some cool missions planned that I can have programmed into my training plan, then I feel wayyyyy happier doing the everyday mileage that needs to be done and I can enjoy the shorter stuff knowing I’ve got some epic missions coming up.
And FOMO, hmmmm, yeah, I haven’t quite got over this one yet!! Any tips welcome.
It seems like every weekend there is something awesome going on, and ‘I just wanna go out and play’ (queue a foot stamp and whiney voice!).
If I ever start to feel the FOMO though, I just have to look at our epic planning wall calendar or scroll through my own Instagram to see all the cool things I’ve been up too and amazing places I have been.
Finally, in managing my mileage, preventing the overtraining and keeping running injury free I have te remind myself of the big challenge I have ahead.
As my wise and wonderful coach said to me this week when I wanted to push for more than was in the programme (I didn’t say I was fully recovered did I?!)…..”Just take it easy, listen to your body and remember your long term goal.”
Such great and simple advice, but sooo hard to take sometimes. For the record, I didn’t do the extra run I had asked if I could do, I did get out for a short walk instead so I didn’t feel like I was missing out completely.
What I’m learning from this new way of training is that running consistent mileage is rewarding and enjoyable in its own right. Going out and running unencumbered, without a pack, food etc and just playing for shorter runs can still be equally rewarding. There are still beautiful places to go that take less than 2 hours return (Tasman, you’re amazing!). Yup, I’m trying to reinforce these ideas to myself by sharing them with you 🙂
So this week and next week are lower mileage weeks as I follow the plan and let my body recover.
This week I got to play in the trails in New Plymouth and on Mt Taranaki and I wasn’t disappointed, I’ll definitely be back!
Next week, we will see what the trails bring, there will be adventures (of the shorter variety) and I’m sure more stories to tell.
P.S. I think I might need help of another kind…I’ve been told that the potentially boggy nature of an upcoming course could “rip my feet to shreds”…that just made me excited!! 😀 …hmm I think there is definitely something wrong with me – who wants to join me in a support group for people that get excited by the potential physical damage that could come from running crazy races??
