The question, read

Am I overtraining or just tired?

You are tired in a way that worries you. Everyone who trains seriously meets this question. The honest answer comes from the direction of travel, not from how you feel today.

1. Two states that look the same from the inside

Ordinary fatigue arrives in a heavy week and leaves in a light one. The deeper state arrives after weeks of unbroken load and does not leave on its own.

The first is the cost of training. The second is the bill for never paying it. They feel identical mid-run, and the log is what tells them apart.

2. The direction-of-travel test

Compare like with like across three or more weeks: same route, similar weather, same honest effort. If paces are holding or improving while you feel tired, you are tired.

If paces slip in similar conditions for two or three weeks in a row, the load has outrun the recovery. That is the read that matters, and it is visible in your own numbers without any new gear.

3. The watch numbers worth trusting

Morning resting heart rate, sleep, and how you feel mean little on any single day. A resting heart rate 5 beats above your usual, held for a week, is the number worth watching.

Read all three as a trend, never as a day. A bad night after a hard session is normal. A week of them alongside slipping paces is the pattern this page is about.

4. What a down week actually proves

The test is cheap: one week at a third of your normal volume, same frequency, no hard sessions. Run easy and short, 4 or 5 times.

If the tiredness was ordinary, the next block starts fast and you feel it within days. If the flatness is still there after a real down week, that is an answer too, and it deserves an outside read.

Where this read stops

This page reads a log, and a log cannot see you. Nothing on a screen can. Pain that sharpens as you run, dizziness, or a resting heart rate that keeps climbing after two easy weeks are not training questions. Those need a person, in person.

Decide it from the trend

Whatever you decide about the goal race, decide it from eight weeks of your own log, not from one bad Sunday. The log already holds the answer.

Reading it honestly takes an evening with a spreadsheet. It takes about a minute, once the upload below is open and someone reads the block for you.