Most athletes are on a quest to improve. People like to see progress and no one wants to see that their hard work is actually moving them in the opposite direction of where they want to go. However, when there is not enough recovery in your training program, your body is not able to recover from the stressload of training. If you cannot recover from the stress of training, you will not be able to make adaptations that will make you a better athlete. Instead of improving, you will end up frustrated and sometimes injured as the stress continues to pile up. OR there is also the athlete who isn’t pushing hard enough. They may be stuck in their comfort zone doing the same workouts or training for the same. There are warning signs that this process has begun and that you may want to consider backing off. Today we will chat about the signs that you may be flatlining and how to stop it from happening MORE ISN'T ALWAYS BETTER TRAP What do you think is more common: athletes who are doing too much or athletes who are not doing enough “I felt good”---> your body is so used to not feeling good that you have forgotten what feeling good actually feels like Stress variables actually make you feel really good→ fight or flight mode for too long is not great Cut back weeks Mileage Workouts & easy runs What is a sign that someone has too much stress in their training? How will your workouts go How will your resting HR be impacted How will your races go Will female athletes lose period How long does it take to start to see these things What are signs someone is not working hard enough Not doing workouts 20% hard running Easy running can only get you so far You need new stimuli Need more directions & specificity  Cannot do the same training/workouts over and over and expect different results. What are signs YOU ARE IN A SWEET SPOT Making steady improvements in workouts Adapting to the load… maybe 1 year ago 40 miles a week was out of reach but now you do it regularly Adaptations happen over time so you need to look back 2-3+ months. This becomes harder when we are constantly in a marathon training cycle or recovering from our latest event. Are we racing and recovering or are we able to train consistently?