5 Signs of Overtraining (and How to Avoid It)
Classic list: mood, sleep, performance. Solution: Continuous monitoring via OpenAthlete as a safeguard.
You're training hard. You're pushing your limits. You're making progress. Then, suddenly, you're not. Performance drops. Mood sours. Sleep suffers. You're overtrained, and you didn't see it coming.
Overtraining is insidious. It creeps up gradually, then hits suddenly. By the time you recognize it, you've already lost weeks of progress. But it's preventable—if you know what to look for.
The 5 Key Signs
1. Mood Changes
Overtraining affects your central nervous system, leading to:
- Irritability
- Depression
- Loss of motivation
- Anxiety
2. Sleep Disruption
Overtraining disrupts sleep patterns:
- Difficulty falling asleep
- Frequent waking
- Poor sleep quality
- Feeling unrested despite sleep
3. Performance Decline
Despite training hard, performance decreases:
- Can't hit target paces
- Power output drops
- Heart rate doesn't respond normally
- Recovery between sessions slows
4. Elevated RPE
Sessions feel harder than they should:
- Same pace feels much harder
- RPE consistently 2-3 points higher
- Heavy legs from the start
- Struggling with easy sessions
5. Persistent Fatigue
Fatigue that doesn't resolve with rest:
- Feeling tired all the time
- Not recovering between sessions
- Needing more rest days
- General lack of energy
How to Prevent Overtraining
Prevention is better than cure. OpenAthlete prevents overtraining through:
- ACWR monitoring: Alerts when load spikes
- RPE tracking: Detects elevated effort patterns
- Recovery analysis: Monitors sleep and stress
- Automatic adjustments: Reduces load when risks detected
- Proactive alerts: Warns before problems occur
The Bottom Line
Overtraining is preventable. Know the signs. Monitor your data. Use AI to detect patterns early. Don't wait until it's too late.
Stop guessing, start training with AI today. Sign up for OpenAthlete and let continuous monitoring prevent overtraining before it derails your progress.