Overtraining for Triathletes

Triathletes are mostly type A personalities, with a subconscious thought that more is better. They also have to handle three sports that overlap themselves with a competitive season of more than six months. The propensity to overtrain is high, but there are a few things that we can do to avoid it. I am going to use Jack Daniels’s (the running coach, not the whiskey) definition of overtraining because his is the one that more simply and clearly defines it. Overtraining is “training more than what is actually needed to perform at a level that can be attained with less training”.

Overtraining has devastating consequences for athletes, like feeling mood changes, increased cortisol (stress hormone) levels in the body, decreased testosterone levels, and altered immune status. All these changes will plateau performance or decrease performance.

So, how can we avoid this state? The first thing that all good coaches recommend is to rest and recover after big efforts. Improvement happens during the resting part of training. During rest the body has the time to adapt to the stimulus it has just received. If you do not give the body rest time, the next time you apply another stimulus the body will not be ready for it and you will not assimilate it. Remember this simple rule: one hard day, two easy days. You will be safe and will gradually improve if you follow this principle.

Another piece of advice from the top is to keep a training log. There you can monitor volume, intensity, resting heart rate, weight, general health, how a workout felt and any other variable that will give you feedback on your progression. A very important variable is sleeping patterns. If you start having restless sleep check how your workouts are feeling. If that is giving you another red flag then back off you training because something is out of balance.

Another important strategy that you can use to avoid overtraining is periodization. (some periods where you back off and some where you tax yourself more) By changing the systems of the body that you are stressing, you dramatically reduce your chances of overtraining and injuries. Aerobic development involves lots of time running, swimming or biking at low intensities. With this type of training if the athlete overdoes it stress injuries are going to knock on your door. Anaerobic training is based on strong efforts with little rest in between each set. If you overdo these the hormone cortisol, is going to run all over your body disrupting your sleep, altering your heart rate, and changing your mood, not a fun state! So periodization, and being conservative are the words of wisdom here. There is a saying in the athletic community that it is better to undertrain than to over train. There are also plenty of medical studies that show that for twenty-one days a decrease in volume at the same intensity will not reduce performance.

Finally, remember that ultimately we do training to be healthy and happy and to improve our performance. Overtraining is a state of the ego. Avoid it because it is a waste of your valuable time and effort.


Boris Fernandez