Is there such a thing as too much running?

Good question. At what point does it become an addition that's not good? We've heard of professional runners who are running upwards of 150K a week. And that's on top of other strengthening exercises. Granted, these guys (and gals) have professional physiotherapists taking care of their bodies, helping them recover. Many of them don't hold jobs outside their sporting activity, but some of them do.

I've read about something called "overtraining syndrome." This isn't a case of too much training as it is a case of not enough recovery. According to an article I read in Runner's World, one that made a lot of sense, you can actually overtrain on running just 20 miles a week. For those of us that think in kilometres, that's about 32k weekly, or say, about 5k daily with one day of rest. That's actually not a lot of running, that's healthy and respectable, but it's very minimal for serious runners. But yes, if you don't give your body enough time to recover between exercises, and feed it, then you can overtrain. Your body can get to the point where it doesn't get any stronger. In fact, your immune system gets weaker, your mood is also affected, and your body can begin to deteriorate, stress fractures and other muscular injuries.

But you can also train in excess of 100 miles a week and be quite fine. With enough rest your body's capable of amazing things. Reminds me of David Goggins, the navy seal who runs ultra marathons. In an interview that I watched on YouTube, he said something to that effect. That we don't know what our bodies are capable of. And that in running ultra marathons, sometimes when you think you're done, when you can't go on, when you are exhausted to the point where you feel you're breaking down, in actual fact you're only at 40% of what your body's capable of handling.

Imagine that, 40%!

So it is possible to overtrain, but with good rest, good nutrition, and watching for the signs, it's also possible to stretch yourself beyond your normal boundaries.

With that, I think I should sleep.