Overtraining Continued

After my original post on overtraining here: http://paleorunners.blogspot.com/2012/01/ole-overtraining.html I thought about doing my own little overtraining experiment.  By using what I have at home (Garmin 310xt), I have recorded my Heart Rate while sleeping.  While this may seem OCD, or excessively geek'y you have to remember who you're talking to ;)!  Note, you can benefit from others' obsessive behavior.


Nothing new here that isn't covered in the previous 'overtrained' post except for this example: I pushed myself hard for 5 days straight by running to and from work, running to the gym for some high intensity training and even starting runs with a set of squats or other wise.  There is a race coming up and needed some volume and I was curious about how much repair I would need to do in my sleep.



I think the most important metrics here are average and minimum heart rate.  It would be interesting to track REM cycles and my ability to awaken in between deep sleep.  Sleep tracking for detecting overtraining seems overly rigorous, there are plenty of other markers to look for.  

• Keep the body guessing 
• Occasionally PUSH the envelope 
• Always get plenty of sleep 
• Take ~1 out of ten weeks off
• **most importantly** train to recover and recover to train!