Overtraining Symptoms

This time when the symptoms of overtraining came, I could recognize them right away. Some of the overtraining symptoms for me were.

• Persistent fatigue
• Legs felt heavy and tired
• Problem staying asleep
• Facial acne
• Hormonal imbalance

I decided against racing Eugene Marathon. I have never given up on a race unless I am injured. When I made the decision, I was sad. I thought I had failed somehow.

One of the reasons I pulled out from the race was the concern about an injury or overtraining, but the main reason I decided against it was because I was starting to lose the joy in my daily runs. I love this sport and want to continue running for years to come. I knew the only way to do that was to bring back the joy of running in my life.

I started to struggle mentally, dreading the workouts. I had put so much pressure on myself to improve my pace. I knew I didn’t want that. This sport has always brought me happiness and I wanted it to stay that way. Looking at my training logs, I knew I needed more training time to have a stronger running body. Specifically, I need speed endurance which will take some time to develop.

For the past two weeks, I have been running just to have fun. Reconnecting with the joy of running without any pressure of a race where I’m trying to get better has brought the experience of running joyfully back to me. I am running races but just to enjoy the experience of racing. With each mile I run I am grateful for what my body does. I celebrate small victories. My body has surprised me with some fast-paced runs, when I’m not even trying to go fast. See my Starva screenshot above.

How to Discover Running Joyfully

I am enjoying my recovery days and enjoying every minute on the road. Instead of obsessing about the future and stressing that I’m not fast enough. I am focusing on small changes like improving my form, improving my breathing, and improving nutrition.

I have learned from this experience that sometimes you hit low moments along your journey. It’s always a good idea to look back and see if you are still finding joy in your journey. If not, try to bring the fun back by renewing your commitment.

Now when I run, I run in the mile I’m in. I try to find peace and tranquility in each mile. I am glad I have found the joy of running again.

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Community

The benefit that strikes out is the community aspect of racing. Racing brings the running community together. I am an introverted person, and I love my solo runs, but races are the perfect way to be surrounded by like-minded people, even for someone like me. Fellow runners in my race corrals have taught me so much about racing. From the marathon expo to the finish line, the support and camaraderie of runners is like none other. Races are like big fitness and running parties.

Motivation

I love the motivation that a scheduled race gives you. The date on the calendar is an excellent way to set a timeline for your running and fitness goals. For me, goals of running with a friend, setting a personal best, or just finishing strong are great for a confidence boost. After achieving the goals for a particular race, I am motivated to set the bar higher for the next race.

Structure

One of the best things about race training is the discipline and structure. I am a pretty self-disciplined person, but life happens; yes, I am talking about kids, work, and home. These things get in the way of exercise schedule quickly. Running with an aim, like a future race,  will help you put various runs on your calendar and motivate you to prioritize your running workouts. You will be able to gauge your progress with structured running.

Challenges

Racing always comes with challenges, managing the training schedule, staying healthy and injury-free, or a hilly course. I like to embrace challenges because they push me out of my comfort zone. I want to do more, push harder, get tougher, and races give me ample opportunities to do just that.

Travel

Racing is a great way to travel around the states and worldwide. I know a few athletes who have run a marathon in every continent of the world. Many runners set to complete the fifty-state challenge and go around to see all fifty states. What better way to explore a city than racing in it? It’s a perfect opportunity to explore the state and turn it into a runcation.

You can reap all these benefits from racing. Try putting a race on the calendar this spring and see where it takes you next. You might get hooked on racing and running.

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How to Tell if You Are Quad Dominant

• If you’re not sure that you belong to the quad dominant group, here are some things to look out for.
• In a reclining core exercise, where your back is flat on the mat, you feel your hip flexors muscles. Hip flexor muscles is a group of muscles that run around your groin area and attach the upper legs to torso.
• You always feel the front of your legs when you squat and lunge but nothing much in the back of your leg.
• You feel a strong stretch in the front of your legs when you go into a bridge position.
• Your quads and hip flexors are sore after running and walking

What Causes Quad Dominance

Quads are the muscles across the front of the thigh that are responsible for flexing your knee. The muscles at the back of your legs, hamstrings, and glutes, are responsible for extending your knee and extending your hips. When your body relies primarily on the front on of your leg for extension and flexion of the knee and hips, that’s what’s called quad dominance. In simple terms, there is an imbalance between quads and hip flexors, and hamstrings and glutes.

The muscles in front of your body try to take over every movement even when its none of their business. Our bodies like to take the path of least resistance. When you have weak muscles in your body, the stronger muscles take over the work of weak muscles.

Modern humans like to sit for extended periods of time. All the sitting at the office desk shortens and weakens your hip-flexor muscles and shuts off your butt muscles. This results in a muscle imbalance in your legs and leads to quad dominance very quickly.

Runners and Quad Dominance

Quad dominance presents as overstriding for runners. Overstriding means that the runner’s leg is falling too far in front of the body with an overly extended leg. This results in the knee absorbing most of the landing force which stresses the knee. Overstriding can lead to injuries. Coach Caitlin Sapp explains it well in her blog, “your leg is the pendulum which should move equally in front and behind your body at any speed. When we overstride, the pendulum is swinging more forward than it is backward, as we are not getting the leg behind us while running.”

Another reason why quad dominance doesn’t work for runners is it leads to fatigue early. Quadriceps muscles are made for power and mostly consist of fast twitch muscle fibers which fatigue quickly. Glutes have mostly slow-twitch fibers and are supposed to endure. Relying on your quads results in less endurance and poor aerobic capacity.

Quad Dominant Running Injuries

Whenever I tell someone that I am a runner, people always tell me that they can’t run because it hurts their knee. The painful knees aren’t due to running. The painful knees are a result of poor posture and quad dominance. When a runner is running at speed, a lot of force is required from the muscles to extend the hips. Because of the poor posture and weak gluteus muscles, runners favor the quads to do the work instead of the glutes. This results in sheer forces at your knee which can lead to many injuries for runners.

The most common running injury because of this postural asymmetry is an adductor or quad strain.  Other common injuries seen in quad dominant runners are shin splints, tibial stress fractures, knee osteoarthritis and plantar fasciitis. Notice that these running injuries are in the front part of the legs, the muscles that are overused.

Bottom Line

Strengthening the weak muscles and placing your hips over your feet when you land, can relieve the knee pain, and avoid these leg injuries. Next time you go on your run, make a video of yourself running from a lateral view. Check if your legs are following the full pendulum swing or not.

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Just like we strength train our hamstrings and glutes we can train our diaphragm and intercostal muscles for deeper breathing. The diaphragm, a dome-shaped muscle that separates the chest cavity from the abdomen, is the most important muscle used for inhalation. The intercostal muscles help move the rib cage and assist in breathing.

Most of the runners take shallow breaths and practice chest breathing. Chest breathing can be a hard habit to kick since most of us spend many hours hunched over our computers, shortening the chest muscles, inhibiting deep breathing. A good way to switch to deep belly breathing is to do breathing exercises when you are not running.

Here are a few exercises that every runner should be doing.

Belly Breathing

Belly breathing activates your diaphragm. You can practice this exercise in a seated position or lying down on your back. Lying down on the floor is a better option because gravity isn’t working against your body.

• Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet on the floor.
• Place one hand on your belly and one on your chest.
• Inhale as deeply as you can. Imagine filling up your belly like a balloon.
• Deflate the balloon, emptying all the air from your stomach.
• Take 8 – 10 breaths for a pre-run warm-up or any time of the day.

Combination Breathing

Second breathing exercise is combination breathing with pursed lips. Combination breathing makes breathing slower and intentional. Inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.

• Come into a seated position or lay down on the floor.
• Inhale through your nose for two seconds.
• Purse your lips like you’re blowing a candle and exhale for 4-6 seconds.
• Repeat this exercise 8-10 times.

Rhythmic Breathing 

This breathing exercise is my favorite because you can do it while running. Try to practice a 3:2 breathing rhythm. Inhale for 3 strides and exhale for 2. Every time you exhale you will land on different foot. This breathing pattern reduces the chances of injury and muscle imbalance.  It’s a great technique for increasing lung capacity.

• Inhale through your nose.
• Take 3 steps on inhale and 2 steps on exhale.
• Repeat for 10 breath cycles and repeat as you can.
• Try to increase the number of breath cycles in each round.

References

• doi: 1177/1941738112445871

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