If there's one thing that isn't lacking in a distance runner's makeup, it's lack of effort. For many distance runners just the opposite is true. A distance runner's true failing isn't lack of effort, it's knowing when to back off on training quantity and training intensity. There is a reason you can't go out and run a marathon at race pace every week or perform a 10K at race speed on a daily basis - neither your body nor your mind will tolerate that much stress. Even though you may not take your training to those extremes, even many training program introduce so much physical and mental stress to your body that it can sometimes rebel. One of the ways your body rebels against excessive stress and inadequate rest and recovery is with over reaching and over training syndrome which is also knows as unexplained underperformance syndrome. Here are some tips and information on over reaching and over training syndrome to help you recognize, avoid and treat these common distance running problems.
