You don't have to be a professional athlete to overtrain. Even amateur fitness fanatics, especially runners and distance athletes, are at risk for overtraining as they reach optimum performance levels.

If you're planning on running a long race in the near future, keep reading. One expert on the symptoms and treatment of overtraining states a large percentage of people who train for 10ks, half-marathons and marathons are overtrained before the race begins. Cyclists and cross-country skiers need to watch out, too. Wow, I'm surprised. Figured overtraining was a rarity in the amateur ranks. Simply not so.

Exactly how a body succumbs to overtraining is not entirely known. One thought is constant training results in overactive cytokines, which in turn, trigger whole body inflammation. One current study is examining if intense, competitive training alters the way genes operate. Regardless, treatment begs plenty of rest and recuperation. Patience is essential, it can takes months to fully recover. Here are a few signs of overtraining:

• Fatigue persisting more than 72 hours after a workout, often coupled with insomnia.
• Three days or more of muscle pain and weakness.
• Rise in resting heart rate.
• Serious drop in performance for no apparent reason.
• A feeling of "heavy legs."
• Loss of appetite, irritability, anxiety or depression.
• Lowering ferritin levels (iron storage).
• Menstrual cycle irregularities
• Cuts/bruises that heal slowly.
• Few colds -- you're more at risk of overtraining if a nasty cold hasn't slowed you down.

If you'd like to learn more, check out Gretchen Reynolds' interesting article on overtraining in the New York Times.

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Plenty of nurses have taken my pulse during physical exams, shouting out a number usually in the low 60s before recording it on my chart. They're taking my resting heart rate, which is the number of beats per minute your heart beats at rest. A resting heart rate between 60-90 beats per minute is considered normal. Many factors can affect your resting heart rate, such as activity level, stress, posture and even temperature.

Elite athletes commonly have lower resting heart rates, some as low as the high 20s. According to Chris Carmichael at Outside magazine, a lower resting heart rate is the side effect of aerobic fitness. However he says there's no real health or performance benefit associated with a lower resting heart rate -- for as many elite athletes with a resting rate in the 30s, there are just as many elite performers with a resting heart rate in the 50s.

You may just be splitting hairs comparing the ultra-low resting heart rates of elite athletes, but for ordinary folk across a wider spectrum of fitness levels, lowering that resting heart rate indicates strengthened heart muscle gained through aerobic training. Simply put, if your heart muscle is stronger, your heart rate decreases since your heart can pump blood more easily. This is a good thing says one research study, a bit dated from 1999. Northwestern University researchers followed the pulse rates of around 34,000 adults aged 18 to 74 years old for a total of 22 years. Relative risks for deaths from heart disease, cancer and all other risks increased as participants' resting heart rates increased.

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