Following is an example of a sensible 18-week training pattern for the same hypothetical Olympic-distance triathlete. In this example, a "progressive week" is one with a training load that is five to 10 percent more challenging than the next most challenging week preceding it in the training process. A "recovery week" is 10 to 20 percent less challenging than the preceding week. And an "overreaching week" is 15 to 20 percent more challenging than the next most challenging week preceding it in the training process.
| Week Number | Training Type |
| 1 | Progressive |
| 2 | Progressive |
| 3 | Recovery |
| 4 | Progressive |
| 5 | Progressive |
| 6 | Recovery |
| 7 | Progressive |
| 8 | Progressive |
| 9 | Recovery |
| 10 | Progressive |
| 11 | Overreaching |
| 12 | Recovery |
| 13 | Progressive |
| 14 | Progressive |
| 15 | Recovery |
| 16 | Overreaching |
| 17 | Recovery |
| 18 | Taper |
Overreaching Aids
Supporting the post-workout recovery process with every available means is always important, but it's never more important than during periods of overreaching, when the most effective recovery method—rest—is taken away. The most effective methods that remain are sleep, massage, stress management and good nutrition with some supplementation if necessary.
Sleep
Sleep is critical to the recovery process. The more you sleep, the more training you can handle. Runner Constantina Dita-Tomescu of Romania reportedly slept 13 hours a night while training for the 2008 Women's Olympic Marathon, which she won.
In an interview with the Boulder Daily Camera, her coach and husband, Valeriu Tomescu, said, "You want my advice, for the athlete and the coach? Don't care as much about your training as you care about your recovery. Why is that? Because if your recovery is good, then your training will be good. Always."
It is very unlikely that you need 13 hours of sleep a night or could even allot that much time to sleeping if you did. But you should at least make sure you're getting enough sleep during overreaching periods to be well-rested for your workouts.
Massage
A new review of scientific research on the effects of sports massage on muscle recovery and subsequent muscle performance, authored by researchers at The Ohio State University, was published recently in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine. They analyzed the results of 27 past studies. While as a group they provided little support for the proposed benefits of massage, the authors of the review found that the 10 studies using the preferred randomized controlled design yielded evidence of "moderate" benefits.
Sports massage is one of those things that is very difficult to study properly. To really do the job you need to collect data from a large number of athletes in heavy training over a long period of time, and that just hasn't happened yet.
My hunch is that the effects of massage therapy are numerous but subtle, in some cases almost intangible, and as such they are very difficult for the scientist to recognize even though these effects may well hold the potential to make a worth-the-money difference in helping athletes recover faster, train harder and avoid injury.
One thing is certain: Athletes who get regular massage treatments swear by their benefits. Indeed, Tim DeBoom recently stated that his long-time massage therapist made a significant contribution to his two Ironman World Championship wins.
Stress Management
There are many different types of stressors, ranging from exercise to deadline pressure at work, that affect the body in similar ways. Thus, the more stress you experience outside of exercise, the less exercise your body can handle without breaking down.
Managing your general life stress is an effective way to increase the amount of training your body can absorb. Proven ways to manage stress include spending time with friends, laughter, meditation, avoiding conflict with others (by practicing good communication skills), minimizing commuting time, sex, spending time on a favorite hobby, avoiding overworking and enjoying one or two alcoholic drinks in the evening.
Nutrition and Supplementation
Nutrition provides all of the raw materials that the body uses in recovery processes. Protein from animal foods rebuilds damaged muscle fibers, antioxidants from fruits and vegetables limit post-exercise muscle damage caused by free radicals, omega-3 fats from fish control inflammation, and so forth.
To maximize recovery, maintain a well-balanced diet, be sure you're getting enough total calories each day, and never fail to consume carbs, protein and fluids within the first hour after exercise.
Certain supplements may also promote recovery. For example, Olympian Laura Bennett uses Optygen, a recovery drink rich in the amino acid glutamine, which overtrained athletes lack. Terenzo Bozzone, the 2008 Ironman 70.3 world champion, uses a mixture or herbal and fungal extracts called ARX.
"I started using it eight weeks before Clearwater and it helped tremendously," he says. "I was waking up in the morning and thinking, 'Gee, maybe I didn't go hard enough yesterday, because my legs aren't that sore!'"
Listen to Your Body
In a well-planned and executed period of overreaching, you should experience a gradually increasing level of fatigue from day to day. On the last day of the designated period, you should feel sluggish from the very beginning of the planned workout but still strong enough to complete it without undue suffering.
Olympic marathon runner Brian Sell summed it up in a recent interview in which he described his own experience with overreaching as "a kind of calloused, dull feeling...where I never feel great but I never feel like just stopping and walking either."
If you find yourself in the middle of an overreaching period and feeling that you do need to stop and walk, or that an injury is developing, abandon the plan and take it easy for a few days. Chalk it up to experience and apply the lesson learned to your next overreaching period by making it a little shorter and/or lighter, beginning it in a more rested state or waiting until you are fitter before attempting it.