When you are in the groove and the boat is in stealth mode, you dial into your mission and rise to the challenge. Whether in practice or on the race course if you are “on” thoughts of failure get no airtime.
However, there will be days when you feel like toast. Athletes need enough rest and at times your scale may be tipped towards the side of fatigue. However, if your performance is starting to drag and the doldrums don’t seem to be going away, you may be pushing the “more is better” principle too far and be risking burnout.
Am I over-trained?
Asking yourself these 20 questions can determine if you need to build more rest and down time in your plan.
Answer each one True or False:
- I am tired all the time.
- I don’t enjoy training/practice like I did before.
- When I am at training I wish I were somewhere else.
- I dread racing.
- It has been a long time since I had fun rowing.
- I continually ask myself why I am rowing.
- It is hard to stay focused on my goals.
- I seem to get injured more often than before.
- My injuries never seem to heal.
- My attitude seems to have become worse over the past few months.
- I resent having to sacrifice so much time for rowing.
- I don’t handle the discomfort from hard training as well as I did last season.
- Sometimes I don’t care that I don’t care.
- I am more negative than usual about myself and my training.
- I put myself down a lot lately.
- I resent my coach.
- I have trouble getting along with my teammates.
- I feel pressured by others to keep rowing.
- I don’t seem to bounce back from setbacks and losses like I used to.
Each true answer equals one point; each false equals zero points.
If you scored between one and three you are not at risk for burnout; between four and seven you are entering the trouble zone so take some time off; between eight and 14 you really need a vacation from training and competition; 15 or higher you are seriously burned out and should sit down with your coach and evaluate your rowing future.
Taking a breather can turn the Thank Goodness it is Friday mentality, counting the minutes of practice, into the Thank Goodness it is Monday mentality and get you revved up for the next season.
Further resources
Masters Rowing Advocacy
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Further resources
- Racing mentality – all or nothing
- Practicing rowing discipline
- James E. Loehr’s classic book The New Toughness Training for Sports: Mental Emotional Physical Conditioning https://amzn.to/3yI3fnm [affiliate link]
