How long in the FORM "red zone"

How long is too long to keep an athlete in the form “red zone”? I know this should be an individualized analysis but in general at which point is it too long to stay in that zone that it will take too long to recover? I feel for some people it may take a couple of weeks of very low volume and intensity to recover and be ready to tackle a new block of hard work. Just curious to know how long you / your athletes are able to stay in that zone without losing the benefits of training or overtraining, overreaching etc.

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I really don’t think there is a text book answer to this one @camargofernando - If I could give you a number, I would sell it and cash it :smiley: because I know many wonder about exactly same question…
The only difference between overreaching and overtraining is the length of time it takes to fully recover… but that “fully recover” is a moving target :smiley: Many of us chase that magic number a little too long and end up injured, sick and eventually overtrained…

I good friend of mine and olympic swim coach told me once: MJ, it is ok to not feel trashed all the time. And actually, 1/3 of the time, you should feel really good, 1/3 of the time you should feel ok, and only about 1/3 of the time you can feel like trash. That gave me personally hope that I’m doing ok when I do feel amazing every once in a while, and I’m not losing fitness because I do.

If you can do a hard workout and follow it up the next day with any workout, you’re probably fine.

MJ