This week started out in a fantastic way. A nice interval workout and two speedy easy runs on rare cool evenings had me feeling so good that I was adding miles to my workouts. That all came crashing down during my threshold pace run on Thursday morning after which maintaining even a 10 minute mile pace for more than 10 minutes was difficult and I found myself taking walk breaks on runs that should have been easy.
Thursday afternoon, I felt horrible. My sinuses were clogged. I couldn’t draw a deep breath. My head was throbbing. As I pondered my physical state leading up to that afternoon’s easy 4 miles, I began to realize a few things about the last week.
1) I’ve had a pretty persistent headache.
2) I’ve been generally melancholy.
3) I’ve felt on the verge of falling asleep at my desk everyday, but cannot fall asleep when my head hits the pillow at night.
Hey, those sound like the classic symptoms of over training. Having realized this, I was kind of relieved. I was beginning to think I was just mentally weak on the threshold pace run. It was nice to know that on the contrary, the opposite was true. I had worked my body into total submission. So, that’s what that feels like. I took Thursday afternoon off, then took Friday off too. Then, I decided to actually sleep on Saturday instead of running 15 miles. I did yard work instead of running once I did wake up. Today has been low key as well. I’m feeling jumpy now so I might just go do three easy miles to shake out the rest days. I’m planning on getting my threshold pace run in tomorrow – perhaps having it first in the week will help. I’m willing to try anything. Here’s how the week went:
Monday AM: 6 miles at 8:28 pace + full body strength
Monday PM: 5 miles at 7:46 pace
Tuesday AM: 600+300+150 intervals for 10 miles total
Tuesday PM: 4 miles at 7:44 pace
Wednesday AM: 6 miles at 9:16 pace + lower and core strength
Wednesday PM: 3 miles with Alice at 10:44 pace
Thursday AM: Crumby attempt at T pace for 6 miles total
UPDATE: Sunday PM: 3 miles at 7:41 pace
Total: 43 miles. Not too shabby for having 2 days off.
Well I am glad you were able to get some rest. If your body feels like it wants to run then thats a good sign too!
glad you opted for some extra rest and a break for your legs/body since it sounds like they were getting rundown. it’s often hard to make that decision but it pays off in the long run. next time you need a cutback just schedule to have a tooth pulled 🙂
hope this week’s runs are strong after the extra rest!
I’m jealous you got to 43, with days off. That’s smart of you to listen to your body and not overdue it.
You still got 1/3 more miles than me. And I didn’t have all those other symptoms. I was just run down and tired all week.
BTW – I like your recovery regimen!