I'm not struggling with motivation these days, but tiredness. I feel like I've been running on tired legs for the past two weeks. Maybe it's the combination of heat and maration ramp-up, but darn.
Is it normal that I'm feeling so tired? Am I overdoing it?
(For those that don't follow my training journal, I run 5 times a week, 35-40k/20-25mi, and my McMillan training plan is making me ramp that way up to 70k in the first week of Sept.)
That’s entirely possible. Are you getting enough rest? Are your easy runs very easy? One way to keep track of your fitness and fatigue is to use the Elevate browser extension. It links to Strava and provides analysis of your fitness trend, fatigue level, and all kinds of extra data too. Definitely worth using if you’re not using Training Peaks.
https://thomaschampagne.github.io/elevate/#/landing
I'll second
@FFigawi's recommendation of Elevate (and adequate sleep/easy runs easy). The Fitness/Freshness tool using Elevate or Strava Premium has a watered down version as well, is a good tool to determine training load balance and whether you're venturing into the overload zone. It's not the end all be all, but another good tool. If you go to my OP on my training journal (
link) I have a series of posts under "Training Load" that discusses the use of this tool.
For me, the canary in the coal mine is a fade during training runs. I've talked about it before, but almost none of the training we do as endurance runners should push us so much that we can't complete a workout as written. The rule of "one more" comes to mind. You should finish every workout feeling like you could have done "one more". Whether that's one more interval or one more mile. If you don't realistically think you could have done "one more" than you probably did too much. But in addition to that, if you try and maintain a workout, and outside of elevation changes or temp changes just simply can't maintain pace and see a fade, then it's a red flag. A sign the workout was too much. It's ok to have these happen on rare occasion. If you see two red flag workouts in the span of 7-10 days, then it's a black flag. You need to immediately pivot your training because you're venturing into an area of overload training. And once you get into overload training it's very hard to dig yourself back out of it.
Despite not seeing fade workouts, I have been to a point of overloaded training once before. My symptoms were a sudden onset of dizziness during normal life (so not when I was running) and "jelly legs" during workouts. With the "jelly legs" it was like a mind/body disconnection. I felt like I was telling my legs to run but they were just moving weird. Like they weren't listening to me. Or like I was a newly born calf and didn't know how to walk/run yet. It was a really odd sensation.
With those things being said, what should training feel like? Imagine yourself in your home. Your fridge normally doesn't make any noise. Now imagine if it started to make a really low level hum. You can barely hear it, but it's noticeable. Hang around that fridge enough, and you might start to no longer hear that hum anymore even though it's still ongoing. Now imagine a friend comes over. They haven't acclimated to the fridge hum, so they're definitely going to notice it and point it out to you. And then you're going to be like, oh yea, now I can hear it again too. Additionally, imagine if the hum suddenly disappeared. Even though you weren't noticing it anymore, you'll notice when it stops. That hum is your training fatigue. When it starts, it's going to be more noticeable. Over time, it's going to fade into the background and become a "new normal". But when you taper, and remove the hum is when you're going to realize, hey this is what it's suppose to feel like when I'm not in the midst of training.
So deciding whether the hum is something you need to have a mechanic look into depends on your level of alarm to the hum. The signs the hum may be too much is Elevate saying you're in overload training, or seeing fades on workouts, or the inability to realistically answer the question of "one more". As time passes and if these things aren't issues, then the hum will become normalized. Only once the taper kicks in will the hum disappear and you re-remember what it's suppose to feel like in the absence of the hum.
