MUST BE A 1 PAGE ANSWER: A collegiate cross-country runner increases her mileage

Question

MUST BE A 1 PAGE ANSWER: A collegiate cross-country runner increases her mileage two months before the start of preseason conditioning. Because this will be her last year of collegiate competition, her mileage increases are significantly greater than in years past. She begins to notice that her muscles are more sore than usual after workouts. Her times remain good, and after an examination by the head athletic trainer she learns that her body composition, blood pressure, and resting heart rate are essentially unchanged since testing two months earlier. Is this athlete overtrained? What is the difference between overreaching and overtraining? If this pattern of unsupervised mileage increases continues, what might begin to happen to this athlete physiologically? Will her performance improve?

Explanation / Answer

From the above description it seems that the athlete is not overtrained yet, since she has shown only one symptom of overtraining i.e muscle soreness which means the pain and stiffness felt in muscles several hours to days after unaccustomed or strenuous excercise, which does not seem to be at the level of overtraining as yet.. There are other symptoms of overtraining as well. They are listed below-

It is mentioned that the heart rate and blood pressure are not changed and any other symptom of overtraining has not been observed, the athlete is possibly not overtrained yet, but continuing this routine could make her overtrained.

Overreaching medically means to develop a injury in leg due to a specific movement of the leg. Overtraining not always include overreaching.

If unsupervised mileage increases continues, with the athlete, then the athlete could be overtained and show other symptoms of overtraining in that case. Her performance will not improve in that case, since there are greater chances of her developing persistent fatigue.

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