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I have been gathering information about avoiding overtraining in athletes.
The fundamental finding is that it seems quite clear that intensity is more often the culprit than volume.
Athletes can certainly improve very rapidly from high intensity repetitions on the track but eventually a plateau is reached where further gains in a season or before the race season start can only come from the athlete performing training at higher and higher intensity. The quest for more intensity can be made easier by decreasing total volume of weekly training as well. However eventually a point is reached where athlete performance will start to decrease and then there is almost nothing that can be done other than backing of the intensity of rebuilding the base with lower intensity training. The problem for the coach and athlete is timing it right BUT this is almost impossible when the athlete is on a higher intensity lower volume program for most of the year.
It is much easier it seems and probably much more effective, especially in the long term to build a moderate to large volume base for at least half the year and then play catch up with the high intensity work. The key to doing it this way is to make sure basic speed is available wich means doing some regular fast work over 40-150m where mechanics can be optimized BUT stay away from INTENSITY which means stacking them close together or do longer faster runs. Intensity in my book is to do with the levels of acidosis that is generated. It is best for the first half of the year or so to work at intensities at mostly Anaerobic Threshold which is believed to be near Lactate 4mM and lower. Even Marathon pace which is nearer to 2.5mM is still a decent pace to be run at for most people & in someone like El Gurrouge this would be under 3:00/km.
In the past my own squad have operated with a low to medium volume higher intensity program for most of the year. But I have grown to believe it is better for 800/1500m to stay away from high intensity work and perform higher volumes like 100km for Women and 130km for Men to build a base and then to slowly decrease volume and phase in more and more intense work.
One of our sessions this year is initially 8km of reps at near to AT pace eg.
3000m rest 3min 1500m rest 3min 1500m rest 3min 1000m rest 3min 1000m - all at AT pace
This will likely change to
3000m jog 3min 1500m jog 3min 1500m jog 3min 1000m jog 3min 1000m - all at AT pace
Then to
2000m jog 3min 1500m jog 3min 1500m jog 3min 1000m jog 3min 1000m - all at 10km pace
Then to
2000m rest 3min 1500m rest 3min 1500m rest 3min 1000m rest 3min 1000m - all at 5km pace
Then to
1500m rest 3min 1500m rest 3min 1000m rest 3min 1000m - all at 3-5km pace
Then to
5 x 800m rest 3min - at 3000m pace or better
Then to
4 x 600m rest 5min - at 1000m race pace.
The main theme is start with AT pace while on high volumes and venture to higher acidosis sessions later in the year when the base is built. Not to make a big change to faster pace work quickly.
Polar Overtraining Test
I have also found a great way of monitoring & detecting early signs of overtraining. It involves the use of the orthostatic test which is laying down with a HRM band on and then standing up with it on. The highest level of the Polar Monitors can gather data which can be analysed by the Polar Precision Software and provide information about how well training is being absorbed. It uses the change in laying down heart rate to standing up as well as the change in inter beat variability to analyse athlete overtraining status.
regards
Steve Bennett
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