By Jena Goldberg
Special to GUIDON
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Do you love to work out? Isn’t it amazing when you make it to mile three and those good old endorphins kick in, helping you to do six miles instead of the five that you originally planned on? And doesn’t it sometimes get you so fired up that you just have to get back out there the next day and log a few more miles?

This happens to me often this time of year. The weather just sets the perfect conditions to indulge day after day and mile after yummy mile. So, as we do with most things that we enjoy, we keep running more and more.

But have you ever wondered if you might be overindulging?  Here are a few things that you might want to consider before adding too many miles to your weekly runs:

Frequency: Although many elite athletes do run every day, the same is not true for recreational runners. We must consider our fitness level and take precaution when trying to run every day of the week. The primary reason it is recommended to run just three times a week is to prevent injuries. Running has a high injury rate, and this only increases when we add too many miles, especially if we start adding them too soon.

Variety: It’s a good idea to add other activities to your fitness plan as well, like weight lifting, sprinting, yoga or even the elliptical or stationary bike at the gym to give your legs a break. Working the same muscle group day after day on the road might be therapeutic for your mind, but it can cause trauma to your legs. Give them a break and incorporate exercises that stress different muscle groups.

Age: It’s a wonderful thing to live a long, happy life and definitely not something that any of us should take lightly, but the sad truth is that if we don’t respect our aging bodies, they will not respect us in return. The cells in our bodies rejuvenate at a slower pace as we age, and despite how young we feel or even how young our amazing diets have helped us to look, the fact of the matter is that our bodies are not fooled, and they know exactly how old we are. We cannot perform at the same rate when we approach 40 as we did when we were 20. We are just not designed to heal from the abuse as easily, so listen to your body no matter how humbling it may be.

Running is a passionate sport — it would have to be for the torture we put our bodies through just to participate.

Running injuries are an unfortunate consequence of overtraining, or sometimes just the impact and stress of running can be harsh on our muscles and joints, especially if we ignore the early warning signs. If something hurts even a little, your body is trying to tell you that it needs a bit more recovery. Ignoring a minimal pain will almost always lead to an injury that will cause more down time in the end. Make it a habit to try and minimize your chance of injuries by wearing proper footwear, replacing your footwear often, warming up properly and never overtraining.

My final word is this: Running is an amazing sport that can sometimes lead the best of us to want to overindulge time and time again. However, too much of a good thing is almost always just that — too much. We must consider more than the workout at hand. Our bodies require constant recovery so that they can continue to perform time after time. We must learn to listen to what they are trying to tell us if we ever expect to reach the goals that we have set for ourselves. If it hurts, then rest it — no one’s going to think you are a superhero if you run through the pain. You will only appear foolish when you can’t run for weeks because of the injury you’ve caused.

Take the time to listen, respect and even rest your body so that it will continue to give you its very best.

(Editor’s note: Goldberg is a military spouse, mother, certified personal trainer, National Figure competitor and fitness writer. Her column appears bi-monthly.)