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Burnout and Fear of Missing Out

What if, for whatever reason, you fail to provide yourself with adequate recovery? You might end up overtrained—aka burned out. Recognizing burnout and taking steps to minimize it are important enough to look at it separately from recovery. In fact, think of recovery as a necessary, preplanned anticipatory of training while recognizing burnout is its reactionary counterpart.

If you are going through a training period and start to feel worn out for more than a couple of days in a row, you may be overtraining. Take it easy for a week. That might involve slashing your weekly mileage by 30 to 40 percent while cutting out your long run. Alternatively, it might involve taking a chunk of days off completely. You are the judge. A good touchstone is to only run when you want and to reengage your training only when you desire to do so rather than when you feel compelled to do so. You might even want to lay low for an additional day or two before fully jumping back into your training regime.

Even during peak training, substituting an emergency break from training can benefit you on race day. In addition to giving your body a chance to recover, you’re also giving yourself a mental break. Never underestimate your enthusiasm for running as a key to getting you through your training and successfully to the finish line.

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is a frequent cause of fatigue and burnout in the ultrarunning community. As you become aware that you’re capable of running vast distances, especially through gorgeous locales or with new and interesting running companions, you may continually add outings and events to indulge your physiological, spiritual, and social desires. While such desires are wonderful motivators, FOMO can leave you taking on additional events without consideration of training benefit or adequate consideration of physiological cost.

If you find yourself unable to decline invitations for a group run, you might have FOMO. If you’re unable to resist signing up for every race, you might have FOMO. If you miss a holiday meal to run, you might have FOMO. Beware of FOMO.

Overreaching and Overtraining

To be sure, you stress your body to improve your running. More accurately, it is stress and recovery from stress that make you better. To reach your fullest potential you may need to push yourself to the verge of overreaching, which is simply doing too much in the short term. An extended period of stress–recovery imbalance or an extreme imbalance may lead to overtraining. The primary differentiator between overreaching and overtraining is the amount of time it takes to recover. Otherwise, the signs of and recourse for the two states are similar.

The first signs you may notice are persistent fatigue and, perhaps, heavy legs despite a few recovery days. You may want to sleep more than normal, but, at the same time, have difficulty falling or staying asleep. Some athletes also experience weight loss, drop-off in athletic performance, and uncommon thirst.

Your training may take a more consistent hit. For instance, it’s a red flag if “you’re ramping up training effort, but your results are worse,” notes Jeffrey Rocco, an orthopedic surgeon with an interest in sports medicine.

Symptoms can also be psychological. If you experience more anxiety or depression than is typical for you, consider whether you need to change your routine. Likewise, do the same if you experience inappropriate fears or anxiety about your running performance. According to Dr. Rocco, another classic sign is having a hard time putting on your running shoes and getting out the door when that’s normally easy.

There are two classic physiological signs that you can prophylactically monitor or use to confirm a hypothesis that you are overreaching or overtraining. First, check to see whether your heart rate is elevated before getting out of bed in the morning. A heart rate that is elevated by at least 10 percent for three or more consecutive mornings