Am I Training Too Hard? A Load Checklist for When It's Not Obvious

"I'm 57 years old and I've been running for 30 years — I no longer compete, but I still run about 30 miles a week at roughly 8:30 a mile, across six days a week. I've also lifted weights, upper and lower body, four days a week for the past five years. Lately I've built up some real fatigue. Could this combination be too much?

– Greg, Hendersonville, NC

Answer by Dominique: Hi Greg,
Thanks for your question. Thirty years of running and four lifting days a week is a serious training life, so let's look at what the total load is doing to you.

Total weekly load — not just your running mileage — is what determines whether you're overreaching. Running six days a week and lifting on four days as well, like you, puts you in a different load bracket. The questions below matter far more for you than for someone training three or four days a week.

I'll break my response down as follows:

1. Is This Normal Ageing Fatigue — or Overreaching?
2. Running and Lifting Are the Same Load, Not Two Separate Ones
3. What to Change First

1. Is This Normal Ageing Fatigue — or Overreaching?

Let's deal with the age question first, because it's the one most runners in their fifties and sixties ask themselves. Some decline in recovery capacity is normal as you get older. Your body simply needs more time to bounce back at 57 than it did at 27 — even with no change in your routine at all. That alone isn't a red flag.

What tips normal ageing into genuine overreaching is persistence and pattern, not the fatigue itself. Watch for three things: fatigue that lasts two weeks or more, a rest heart rate that stays above your normal (a useful clue, though not a reliable test on its own), and sleep that leaves you no more refreshed than when you went to bed. A flat week now and then is normal. Motivation that keeps dropping, week after week, is the real signal.

2. Running and Lifting Are the Same Load, Not Two Separate Ones

Here's the part most overtraining checklists miss entirely: your lifting sessions don't sit outside the "am I training too hard" question just because they aren't running. Four days a week of upper and lower body work is a real systemic and neuromuscular load. Your body doesn't much care whether the fatigue came from mile twenty or from your last set of squats.

Add it up properly and the picture changes. Six days of running plus four days of lifting leaves you with one day at most that's free of running — and if any of your lifting falls on that day, you have no fully easy or off day at all. If every single day carries a run, a lifting session, or both, that's not a volume problem yet. It's a schedule-structure problem — fix that first, before you touch your mileage or your lifting programme.

If you want the fuller picture on where lifting fits alongside a running week, I've written a full guide on balancing running with a strength routine.

3. What to Change First

Here's the three-step process I'd run you through. Follow it in this order, not all at once:

1. Add one full rest or active-recovery day into your week before changing anything else. Given your current schedule, this is very likely the single biggest lever you have.
2. If the fatigue persists for more than two weeks after adding that day, see a doctor. Rule out something outside training altogether — a virus, thyroid issues, or ordinary life stress can all feel exactly like too much training.
3. Once you've been cleared, work out whether this is overreaching, undertraining, or a plateau, rather than guessing — the framework below tells you which.

For the fuller framework behind that checklist, use the full plateau/overtraining/undertraining diagnostic on the training pillar page. If your situation differs from the one you've described, two related pages might fit better. See not sure whether to back off, or check whether your full schedule is too ambitious.
So, Greg — my honest read is that this isn't your age catching up with you, and it isn't your mileage either. From what you've told me, it's most likely a full week with no true recovery day in it. Add that day in first, give it two weeks, and see a doctor if the fatigue is still there after that.

All the best,
Dominique

Some Other Pages You May Like

Home > Running Training > Running Plateau > Am I Training Too Hard? A Load Checklist for When It's Not Obvious

  ☕ Buy Dom a Coffee