Would most people who train to become an Olympic Marathon runner get seriously injured from overtraining?
People at higher levels are usually doing it essentially as a full time thing — at the least it takes priority over everything else, which doesn’t usually occur with the average person. They’re able to build up to it, and they eat and rest appropriately for it. They also know how to alternate hard and easy workouts and/or take cross training days. And they usually have a coach to help them or know how to monitor themselves to avoid overtraining. But you do indeed frequently have people push themselves just that extra bit too much and it turns up even in races. You might remember Deena Kastor dropping out of the Olympics, for example, or Paula Radcliffe developing her own stress fracture. It’s simply rare that it occurs in the midst of a race — if someone is having issues, they usually have warning signs in training and time their races around them. It’s only rarely that there are things like the Olympics where someone continues to enter beyond their ability at the time. The elites kn
