Things to remember....

On Saturday we had a quick seminar due to our higher scheduled mileage. We said a few words about cross training, and here are some important points:

Here is a great article on what to look for as symptoms of overtraining, adapted from Heart Zones Training:

Recovery and Overtraining

Your body becomes fit and strong as a response to the stress you place on it.  This is called adaptation, and training is a form of stress.  When you train over long distances, hills, or speed, your body wants to make it easier for you by building a stronger heart, stronger muscles, and stronger joints.  USA Fit has developed a program for you that builds each week and then incorporates a recovery week.  The recovery week may include shorter workout duration and/or a decrease in the number of workouts for this week.  It's in this week that your body rests and rebuilds itself as a stronger machine.  Really it's in the recovery week that you have the most muscle growth.  This point should shed light on the importance of a recovery week.  Without it, your body does not have the opportunity to rest and get stronger.  If you continue to train without incorporating rest weeks, you will burn out!  The term for burn-out is "overtraining."  

There are physiological events that take place when you have over-trained:

• Reduced muscle glycogen
• Elevated serum cortisol
• Iron deficiency
• Decreased bone density

 What do these physiological changes look and feel like?

• Excessive fatigue
• Loss of appetite
• Muscle soreness
• Increased injury
• Poor sleep
• Altered menstrual cycles
• Increased HR at rest
• Poor immune function  

Psychologically it can feel like:

• Lack of concentration
• Mood changes
• Fear of competition
• General apathy and lethargy 

As a group of athletes your fitness level is on a sharp incline.  If you've been following the training plan, you should be seeing a lot of improvement in your walking or running endurance.  For some who are new to endurance training, this sharp improvement can be a huge source of motivation-so huge that you may be inclined to skip the recovery week to keep the improvements growing.  As mentioned earlier, this tactic will lead to injury and overtraining.

The key to a good training plan is to find the balance between stress and recovery.  Your training plan should provide enough stress that your body is pushed to muscle breakdown, but not injury.  It should also provide enough recovery time to allow your body the opportunity to rebuild and replenish itself.  USA Fit has outlined this for you.  If at anytime you are having difficulties sticking to the plan or feel any of the above symptoms, please contact your coach.

Helotes location

USA Fit San Antonio members can still use their 15% store discount at all Soler's Sports locations this weekend, so you save even more. To sweeten the deal, if applying the 15% discount brings the price of your favorite shoes under $100, they will qualify for tax-free status even though they wouldn't at regular price. Wow! As a reminder the 15% discount is good on regularly-priced merchandise only and is not valid on bikes or Garmin products.

Official Benchmark Race

Update: The New Braunfels location has chosen a benchmark race closer to home -- they will be doing the

• Alamo Heights - 6:00 am 
• Helotes - 6:00 am
• New Braunfels - 6:00 am  
• Stone Oak - 6:00 am  

New Braunfels - Cypress Bend Park ** New location!