No single number tells you. Look for a combination: training load well above what you are used to for more than a week or two, a resting heart rate several beats above your normal, an HRV below your normal, and runs that feel harder than they should. Your watch can show you the first three. Only you can notice the fourth.
What can my Apple Watch show me?
| Signal | What to look for | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Training load | Well above your norm, and staying there | Training Load on Apple Watch, or your status in Kiiro |
| Resting heart rate | Several beats above your usual value for a few days in a row | Health app, Kiiro |
| HRV | Clearly below your own baseline for a few days in a row | Health app, Kiiro |
| Sleep | Shorter or more broken than usual | Health app, Vitals |
Each of these moves for other reasons too. A raised resting heart rate can mean a cold, a hot night, alcohol or stress at work. One signal on one day means nothing. Several of them together, for several days, deserve attention.
What can only I notice?
- Easy pace feels hard, or your heart rate is unusually high for the pace.
- Heavy legs that do not clear after an easy day.
- Poor sleep, even though you are tired.
- Irritability, or losing the wish to train.
- Small aches that keep coming back, or one cold after another.
Is it overtraining or just a hard week?
Usually a hard week. Doing more than you are used to and feeling it is called overreaching, and it is part of training. You back off for a few days, recover, and come back stronger.
True overtraining syndrome is rare. It develops over weeks or months of too much load with too little recovery, and it does not clear with a few easy days. Performance drops and stays down. That is a medical matter, not something to fix with a training plan.
What should I do?
- Take two or three easy days, or rest completely, and watch whether your resting heart rate and HRV return to normal.
- Look at how fast you have been adding load. Big jumps cause more trouble than high load you have built up to.
- Check the basics: sleep, food, and stress outside training.
- If you still feel flat after two weeks of taking it easy, see a doctor.
What does Kiiro show?
Kiiro compares your acute load with your fitness level and gives you a status. Fatigued means your load balance is between +30% and +50%: a big jump that is fine for a few days if recovery follows. Overtrained means it is above +50%: much more than you are prepared for. Kiiro warns you before you get there, and shows your resting heart rate and HRV trends beside it.
One thing to be clear about: Overtrained in Kiiro is the name of a status. It describes how your recent load compares with what you are used to. It is not a medical diagnosis. See training load in Kiiro.
Related questions
- What does Training Load mean on Apple Watch?: Apple Watch Training Load compares your last 7 days of workouts with the previous 28 and labels the result from Well Below to Well Above. Here is how to read it and what to do about it.
- Does Apple Watch have a training status like Garmin?: Not under that name. Apple Watch has Training Load, which tells you whether your last week was more or less than usual, but no label such as Productive or Detraining. Here is what it offers and how to get a status.
