Another world class marathoner, Grete Waitz, was known for her consistent marathon performances. She was nicknamed the first lady of the marathon. And she attributed her success to being aware of the signs for possible over training. Positive answers to three or more of the following questions suggested to her that she had taken her body beyond it's adaptive capacity. And these questions included, does my normally comfortable workout leave me breathless? Do my legs feel heavy for far longer than usual after a hard workout or competition? Do I find it especially hard to climb steps? Do I dread the thought of training? Do I find it hard to get out of bed in the morning? Do I have a persistent lack of appetite? Am I more susceptible to colds, and flu, and headache or infections? Is my resting heart rate 5 to 10 beats higher than usual? Is my heart rate during exercise higher than usual? Now, Waitz took particular note of the feeling in her legs and the way she breathed during her training runs. When the heaviness in her legs did not go away after a few minutes of running, she knew she should rest rather than train. Now, at the age of 51, Waitz was diagnosed with cancer and she died of cancer in 2011, and she was only 57 years old. Now, these are just two anecdotal stories about famous athletes known for their ability to push their bodies beyond what was previously thought possible and develop serious health problems. There is some evidence that athletes from European or the Eastern European countries, who allegedly over trained for extended periods, soon come to an illness known as Addison's disease. In this condition there is depression, there's progressive weight loss and there's an inability to maintain blood pressure when standing and there is a lack of strength and power. And the causes of Addison's disease is the failure of the adrenal gland to secrete adequate cortisol. Remember that cortisol is a hormone allowing the body to cope with a higher level of stress. The inability to exhibit a normal cortisol response has been observed in runners who are training heavily. The problem of reduced cortisol has been attributed to exhaustion of the hypothalamus. And when this happens these systems regulated by the hypothalamus and the pituitary can also be affected, and these systems include the thyroid and the adrenal glands. The autonomic nervous system, which regulates body temperature, blood pressure, and also anti-diuretic hormone and also it disturbs the sleep center. And this potentially explains sleep disturbances when the athlete is trained.