Is This Fatigue ? Help Needed !

[McGuire86]

Right well to cut a long story shot, all last week I was running fine, doing 3milers, a 1.5mile fast run, a 2mile cross country run and a sprint session workout along with doing my weight training in the afternoon.
However this evening and last night after about 1.5 miles of running I was so out of breath, my legs felt as if they had run double the distance and I had to stop. This happened a few months ago but I ignored it and carried on to the point were I was that shattered I was physically being sick on the track.
As a result to this I took two weeks off training and when I came back it took me ages to get back up to the standards I was running before.

So my question is, is this signs of fatigue? Or is my body in need of a rest? I don’t want to do what I did last time and have a long break. Also I have been planning as of next week to start running in the morning as I am getting very very close to reaching my fitness goals and applying.

I’ve heard of what some people call a ‘de-load’ week when they keep their training up but reduce it so they can maintain their fitness. Any suggestions to what I should be doing or even a plan on what I can do would be a huge help, thanks a lot.

[fogarty]

How many runs a week are you doing?
You may want to do runs on one day, weights the next and leave Sunday a restday or something.

Or if you're being sick, just keep going and see what happens.

[lewis]

A good indicator is your resting heart rate. Take it every morning when you wake up. A rise of 5 beats per minute or more means you are getting ill or need to have an easier day. Taking 1 or 2 days off normally sorts things out for me.

If you are ill or over-trained (which it sounds like you are) then doing more will only make it worse.

[ReadyEddie]

When I went through a period of over training a little while ago I took all the fast runs out of my programme and started going for longer, more easy paced runs. After a couple of weeks of that I went back to doing 1and half-6 milers again and found that my times had slightly improved. I think this was because I had been running tired for so long and all of a sudden I was fresh.

[Darren82]

Quality over quantity mate

4 good, hard seesions per week with adquate rest, nutrition and hydration will yield you much better results than 6 days per week with crappy diet

Diet really is under-rated on this forum think I'll do a post on it soon as it is very important for sports performance

[Ali3]

some very good stuff mentioned above. Diet, hydration and rest is massive especially if its redders!
Mix it up a bit i.e do a good hard session then the following day have a light session. Or 2 days on 3 off??
Overtraining causes you to burn out and lose motivation which it seems like you have done.

Is there an athletics or running club nearby you could join? There you would do the right kind of training whilst not overdoing it and making it counter productive.

As darren mentioned diet is huge. At CTC, you can get 4 good hot meals a day- eating chocolate, sweets and drinking fizzy drinks depletes all sugar levels, potentially dehydrating you too.
Not saying that you do that- just emphasising my point.lol

[AJtothemax]

Diet really is under-rated on this forum think I'll do a post on it soon as it is very important for sports performance

Do a search mate. I'll add anything i can to whatever you're going to post on diet to help maximise peoples benefits from the thread.

Anything that needs touching up, im sure Spence will be happy to educate us all. His stuff is sh*t hot.

[McGuire86]

Yeah my diet is pretty good, i eat 4-5 balanced meals through the day. Breakfast is usually the fatty one i.e. bacon, eggs toast. Then i have lunch which is usually pasta and tuna. Dinner then varies sometimes fish with potatoes, other days pasta, somedays pie with broccoli, currys, stir fry, salads, rolls with soup - it varies really depending on teh day. As for fludis I only drink water, being a pint with every meal, a pint when i work out and a few random pints in between meals.
And no there is no running club nearby unfortunently so I do all my training on my own. I think what im going to do for the rest of the week is just do a slow pace mile for the running side just to keep the fitness up, along with my usuall wieght training routines. Then come next week i'll get back to doing what i was doing before and see if that has helped.

[Felias]

I find the best fuel for exercise is greasy scran. Say you were doing training in january where its cold, you could get a cramp!!! Proper diet is a good way to prevent injury from worsening aswell. When I was in training, I used to eat naffi crap all round the day along with my 3 meals per day!! If you pickup soft tissue injuries sprains and over use stuff, I found I was able to remidie mine by drinking tons of milkshake and eating lots of pur protein(NAffi chicken sticks) because thats what soft tissue is rebuilt by. It worked for me, after twisting the ankle around 14 times on 1 ex I was just eating calcium and protein over the weekend because of the pain. It was gone by the second day! In your case, a few hard sessions per week will work wonders rather than wearing yourself out everyday.

[AJtothemax]

Yeah my diet is pretty good, i eat 4-5 balanced meals through the day. Breakfast is usually the fatty one i.e. bacon, eggs toast. Then i have lunch which is usually pasta and tuna. Dinner then varies sometimes fish with potatoes, other days pasta, somedays pie with broccoli, currys, stir fry, salads, rolls with soup - it varies really depending on teh day. As for fludis I only drink water, being a pint with every meal, a pint when i work out and a few random pints in between meals.
And no there is no running club nearby unfortunently so I do all my training on my own. I think what im going to do for the rest of the week is just do a slow pace mile for the running side just to keep the fitness up, along with my usuall wieght training routines. Then come next week i'll get back to doing what i was doing before and see if that has helped.

Hey mate. Some things i would suggest changing if you feel like it: Breakfast - try eating porridge in the morning, shredded wheat, weetabix or something like that to get those vital carbs down your neck. I would also suggest something to make up the protien for muscle repair as your body can take in more protien first thing in the morning, whether that be a couple of tins of tuna (50g of protien right there) or a whey protien supplement as they are easier and faster. Eating tuna wouldnt taste the best after eating porridge . The reason behind this is that it has already metabolised the meals before and gained significant rest from what should have been a decent nights sleep. Your body is craving fuel in the morning so top it up, and top it up well! I know of bodybuilders from the gym who would put tuna in coke (yeah, coca cola!) and drink it, just so they could get it inside them - if they can do something like that to get what they need inside them, then im sure you can if you have to.

Piece of p*ss mate

You cant go wrong with taking in nothing but water so keep on doing that, i drink 4-5litres of water a day.

Your diet is varied - that is good! Regarding things that are 'bad' for you, as long as they are eaten in moderation then they will do you no harm. If anything they can do some good in boosting your metabolisum! You said you have pasta and tuna for lunch, so if you can then try have a bigger portion of that ok. Every little helps.

[McGuire86]

yeah thanks for the info on diet, allways helpful to get more knowledge

but getting back to the fatigue issue, what would you reccomend i do ? take a few days off? or reduce the training for a while ?

[AJtothemax]

yeah thanks for the info on diet, allways helpful to get more knowledge

but getting back to the fatigue issue, what would you reccomend i do ? take a few days off? or reduce the training for a while ?

Simply taking in more carbo will help mate ok. I train my arse off 5 days a week when i can (due to injury) and simply have weekends off, and thats usually sufficient for me but i have felt the fatigue you're talking about before. If you're doing everything right e.g with your diet and sleep then just keep on pressing ok, your body will adapt.

What time do you go to bed then? You should ideally be in bed at the latest by 10pm - seriously. Take a look at top athletes. They're in bed at like 8pm. Why? So they can produce the best they can when they have to. Treat yourself like a baby if you have to. What do babies do? Eat and sleep. Thats how they develop faster. Apply that with your training mentality and it could help you. You might also consider slowing down your training pace for a week or two so your body can regain what it has lost. Other than that im not sure there is much else you can do.

I hope i have been of some help to you.

[McGuire86]

yeah thats alot of help mate thanks for that, think im gunna do what you mentioned ; reduceing the intensity of the running for the rest of the week and come next week go back to normal and start pushing again.
As for sleep i'm usually in bed by 1am, however i mentioned as from next week i will be doing my running between 7-8am therefore this week i have been going to bed earlier and getting up earlier so i should get used to this in the next few weeks.
If you want me to be more specific with things i can write up what im currently doing for training if you think this might be more help for you and others to give advice?
Thanks again

[Spence]

Don't be afraid to take a break mate, try taking three days off and see how things are. If three days doesn't quite cut it increase the rest by another three days and see where you stand at that point.

As has been said by previous posters, try checking what your recovery strategy is like as well as your nutrition. Make a food diary to see exactly what you are eating, as well as a full on training diary, which includes how you feel after a work out, how you feel at different times of the day etc.

The point about your resting heart rate is a very good one too, keep an eye on that as well your heart rate during exercise plus the recovery time afterwards. Any changes in that will help in figuring out how effective your training is at the same time as keeping an eye on fatigue.

I mentioned this before, but it might be worth bringing it up again:
Alwyn Cosgrove talks about "The Training Tap":

"Your body can't differentiate between stressors. Stress is like water from hundreds of taps flowing into a bathtub. Financial stress, relationships, health, and training stress are all different taps. When all the other taps are flowing full blast, turn down the training tap a little bit so your tub doesn't overflow".

A simple analogy, but don't under-estimate the cumulative effect of different stressors.

You might be looking at the start of adrenal fatigue and it would be interessting to hear about any other (non-training) symptoms you are suffering from? (PM me if you don't want it on an open forum)


Oh and AJ........cheers mate

[Spence]

If you want me to be more specific with things i can write up what im currently doing for training if you think this might be more help for you and others to give advice?

Yes please.

Also if you can it would be interesting to see what you do for a living, what your diet looks like (a sample day or two would be fantastic), etc etc.

Cheers mate