How long should I wait to recover from overreaching?

[Brandon MacMullin]

I have been following the 24 week mountaineering plan. About 3 weeks ago I smoked myself doing the Steep Zone 3 workout on week 14 of the plan. I knew I over did it but due to an unanticipated weekend weather window on the weekend, I ended up grinding up a big (for me) ski tour.

The following week I took it easy but felt good and ran a PR on my go to loop.

I have not felt the same since. Last week I struggled to get out of bed and had to modify and cut short my workouts. When I could no longer run, I decided to completely stop training.

In hindsight I should have stopped training at the first signs of performance decline.

Currently on day 4 without training, I feel much better, legs still feel slightly heavy, I could probably manage a run but don’t want to push it.

Wondering how long I should wait before resuming training. Is there a good rule of thumb?

Per the training plan, up next would be the weighted hill climbs (ME phase) but I plan to do the aerobic volume without weight first.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Scott Johnston]

Brandon:

Bummer that you have had this issue.  But I think you’ve handled it pretty well.  Sure you could have stopped earlier but this is so common that I rarely see people back off at the first indication of trouble.  I’d give it a full week before you dip your toe back into training. If you are already feeling much better after just 4 days that indicates that this was just a bit of overreaching without the desired recovery block afterward.  This is not over training or you would not have bounced back so fast.

Try bounding up a flight of stairs and noting how your legs feel.  That’s the best test for deciding when to start training again.

Scott

[Brandon MacMullin]

Thank you Scott. Glad to hear this was not overtraining. After 5 days off I have done 3 easy runs and feel ready to start following the plan again.

 

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