The Mysterious Syndrome Destroying Endurance Athletes
In 2012, ultrarunner Mike Wolfe's career crumbled at the Transvulcania Ultramarathon, a collapse he later attributed to overtraining syndrome (OTS), a poorly understood disorder increasingly afflicting elite endurance athletes. As ultrarunning's popularity soars, top competitors like Anton Krupicka and Anna Frost have mysteriously lost their abilities. Experts like David Nieman and Jeff Kreher explain that OTS occurs when excessive training without adequate recovery disrupts the parasympathetic nervous system, leading to a sudden, profound loss of performance. Wolfe's story illustrates the condition's devastating impact, as he responded to his initial failure by training even harder, worsening his state.
It wasn't like my stomach was bad or I couldn't eat. It was like my body was just shut down. Like, Nope, you can't run that hard. I'm not going to allow it.
- kzrdude
Nils van der Poel was* a long distance speed skater who set impressive records and wrote about his training regime. His book is https://www.howtoskate.se/. He trained ambitiously for 3 years, won Olympic gold medals and retired! He followed a very analytically minded path and avoided overtraining.
See also brief overview article about him:
https://runningmagazine.ca/sections/training/olympic-speed-s...
(*) He changed his name since, to a more common name, so using past tense seemed humorously appropriate.
- kyleblarson
For those interested in the topic, this book is an amazing and extremely scientific read. Scott was a world cup nordic skier and mountaineer. I am a nobody but got to train with him before my first ultra and it was eye opening. I would upload every workout and if my HR zone was too high he would text me and say "Slow down! I don't care if you're walking at a snails pace."
https://uphillathlete.com/product/training-for-the-uphill-at...
- manoDev
Well, the marathon was inspired by a hero who died from exhaustion after running.
- nortonb82
- xcskier56
I wonder if this is due to a lower rate of coaching. I don’t have a ton of first hand knowledge but most other endurance sports the athletes usually come up through well organized teams. Maybe the lack of organization (which is great for other reasons) leads to less coaching and therefore missing someone to tell you to rest and recover before you go over the edge.