Running, Overtraining

Semoy,

First, you are an inspiration to many for your dedication to a healthy lifestyle. I am a physical therapist and a multisport athlete, long course triathlete, and research demonstrates that strength and cardiovascular development does not stop or lessen when older, we need to just adapt our programs to accommodate for age related changes that occur to our bodies. One is that as we age, we require longer periods of time to recover from intense training than we use to, our bodies do not absorb nutrients as easily and sleep is harder to come by due to many changes (hormonal, though is a key one). Have you added resistence training into your program? Even 1-2 days of a form of resistence training can provide large levels of benefit to health. Another component is cross-training. If you have been running only 6 days a week, make one run a bike or a swim, this changes the stress on your body and allow your body to heal better from your running stresses. The last and most important part is rest days and recovery weeks. I always instruct my patients to have one rest day a week, and every 4th week reduce your amount of activity by 30-40%. Then the next week after, resume at the previous level or 10% more depending on your goals. This reduction really allow the body to fully absorb all the benefit your training has created. Hope this helps, let me know of any further questions.

ptlifeguard
Thank you very much for your precious advice. Perhaps with some more information on me you would be able to help me better. During my early manhood I was doing a bit of all sports but was neither doing it regularly nor dedicated to any. At the age of 45 I had to undergo a surgical operation of the vertebrae owing to a prolapsed disc. I partly recovered from this operation and its after effects nearly 1 year after and painfully started some physical activities. At the age of 50 I started distance running and to my amazement after some training (which I was doing wearing a back support belt) I found that I was better than many youngters. I dedicated myself to running and participated in some competitions. I was rather effective and was among the first five each time in the overall categories. After 5 to 6 years I felt a pain in the right knee owing to a degenerative cartilage. I started cycling in order to avoid impact on the knee and discovered an interesting sport. I also do a bit of swimming (which I love) but because of a bad ear (damaged ear-drum and balance apparatus which I contracted during deep sea diving). I am taking glucosamine + chondroitin everyday for the painful knee and it is very helpful. I am now 60 and I was running 15 km daily for 6 days a week until this year when I had to reduce it to 3or4 days because I feel tired and have painful heels (plantar fasciitis) which I contracted whilst running on a ground/stone surface. Treatment for the plantar fasciitis is taking longer than it should because I have not taken consecutive rest days. Thank you for reading the above.