How to spot fatigue in your athletes early
Signals in the data and in how athletes feel that warn you someone is overloaded, before injury or a slump arrives.
Accumulated fatigue rarely arrives all at once. It almost always leaves clues for days or weeks. The coach's job is to see them before they turn into an injury or a lost block.
In the data
- Very negative form for several weeks in a row.
- Ramp rate too high: load rising faster than the body can absorb.
- Higher heart rate for the usual pace on easy runs.
- Intervals that don't come off: paces that used to feel comfortable and can no longer be hit.
In how they feel
- Higher perceived exertion than usual for the same session.
- Comments about poor sleep, irritability or lack of motivation.
- Niggles that don't go away from one day to the next.
What to do
Bring the recovery week forward, swap a hard session for an easy one, or simply ask. It's almost always better to lose a workout than a week.
With many athletes it's impossible to check everyone every day. That's why a roster view that flags very negative form or a runaway ramp rate helps.