There is a fine balance for runners in getting the volume and intensity of training right FOR YOU. Too much ‘hard’ training too often is a recipe for injury and a decrease in health. Too much ‘easy’ training and your body won’t receive the stimulus it needs for positive adaptations to occur.
So what’s the right mix?
There’s no one answer. Individuals have varying physical, chemical and emotional stresses (including training, work, family & friends, etc), and abilities too work with and around these stresses.
I’m a big believer in Phil Maffetone’s approach to training: TRAINING = WORK + REST, with work being all the stresses on your body (not just your training sessions). You can do everything right in terms of training intensity, nutritionally, getting ‘enough’ sleep etc, but if you have a highly stressful job you may still be doing too much ‘work’. As an example, Phil’s approach would be to reduce training when other stresses are high, and in most cases the result is improved performance – even with the reduced quantity (of training).
It’s a situation where as runners we need to be very honest about our situation, and accept that sometimes we should be reducing our physical training to improve our performance. When other stresses reduce, this is the time to increase training volume. It’s a balancing act, sure, but it’s about HEALTH – not just fitness.
I highly recommend Phil’s book: The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing
See you out there – Juddy