I ran 12.5 miles yesterday. My longest run to date by 1.5 miles. Inching my way closer and closer to the mighty 13.1 that will take place on February 15th. I will also hit the 30mpw mark today for the first time ever! Exciting!
There is one problem though... my legs. I don't know if it's a rite of passage that runners go through with an increase in long run mileage or what, but no matter what distance my long run is... the last two miles are always torture! How in the world do people do this for 26.2 miles? Egads!
Anyway, I'm always fine in the cardiorespiratory (CR) dept. Unfortunately, at about mile 2 of yesterday's long run I knew that I was going to eventually feel the dreaded pain. As always, my legs seemed to be entering another Saturday full of fatigue from the preceding week of training. Around mile 10, I was actually complaining to my my mountain-bike riding water bottle sherpa (my dear husband) that CR speaking, I felt terrific... could go on and on; however, my legs were another case entirely. I was actually contemplating removing them from my body just so I could continue without the awful muscle fatigue. Stopping and stretching seemed to help for about 2 minutes into the next section of the run... and then the fatigue was right back.
I had to cross over a few streets during the last few miles of yesterday's run and I found myself trying to 'beat' the lights and the cars. Yeah... real safe, I know. I knew that if I stopped to let anyone pass that it was going to be difficult to get the legs to start again.
Please bloggers... tell me that I am not alone in this game? It does get better, right? Pretty, pretty please... tell me that it does get better! Lie to me if you must.
Despite all of the leg fatigue yesterday and my thoughts about amputation, I sit here this morning anxiously awaiting the moment when I can leave my house and do my 3-mile recovery run before some lap swimming. I guess that run yesterday didn't beat me up too much, huh? Either that or I'm some sort of secret masochist.
Anyhoo (yes, hoo... not how), in an attempt to isolate exactly what it is that is causing my leg fatigue during my long runs, I have decided to cut out all cycling/spinning this week AND all lower body strength training. Running, swimming and core/upper strength are still allowed. I also have a sneaking suspicion that I may be timing some of my more intense run workouts (hill, intervals) too close to my long run. Perhaps these are wiping out my legs as well. Hopefully I'll have some answers by the end of next week.
7 comments:
I feel the same way with the long runs......keep going and you'll feel great race day! Sometimes the last few miles feel like I'm running through honey and I'm actually willing my legs to keep going forward. But, hey we still love the training, don't we?
If it were easy, everybody would be doing it, and yes I feel the same way near the end of a long run as well.
Remember, when you do your race, it will be at the end of good taper, not a week of intervals and hills.
That will likely mean one of two things. You will do the distance at the same pace pain free, OR you will still hurt as much during the last two miles of the race, but you will be wayyyy faster.
Just remember to rest and recover, and eat well.
Oh hunny, you are so not alone in this one at all. I know that I find my longer runs to be a huge mental game, and before even getting out there I am already doubting myself. Especially if the last long run didn't go as well as I would have liked. But, we need to treat each run as a new day and not compare it to the last. I find that if I start out too fast, I end up burning out too quickly. Today, I took my long run slower, and told myself that if I was feeling good by the point that I only had a couple more miles left, I would pick up the pace and finish strong.
You're doing great. Just listen to your body. I don't want you to burn out!
Two things. Having your legs feel like that now is partly because you are training hard. When you are ready to race you'll have fresh and tapered legs. You also might want to try salt tablets. I found that what I thought was fatigue was really almost cramping. When I started to take salt tabs that feeling never happened. Learning how to deal with that 'discomfort' now will help you push through it race day. As long as your pace doesn't slow at the end you are fine. If you pace is slowing at the end, start out slower and pick up the pace at the end. You'll have a better workout and race that way.
Sherry, a new distance always leaves you tired. If a long run always leaves you exhausted, are you running your long runs too fast? Maybe you can try breaking the distance up and consciously slowing down the first portion. If you have another long run to try fuel, it might help--I didn't have anything but water in my first half, but I used Gu in my second and was thankful for it.
The important, unbelievable, endurance-athlete thing of it is that you've got another long run on the calendar, and you're planning to do this again!
You're a woman in motion, all right!
Sherry--I have the same problem some days and it is not even at 1/2 of what you run! I find that there is a definite correlation between the weakness and my mineral balance. Sodium, electrolytes, water intake from the day (s) prior to the run. Just my 2 cents. Hope you figure out something. It is frustrating!!
Yeah! Long training runs! :) Ok - I'm just trying to be positive. But have you looked at your nutrition while you run? Rule of thumb for me is that anything over 10 miles I take a gel,gu, or whatever floats your boat every 4 to 5 miles. If I was doing a 10 mile run, I'd take one at 5 miles with some water. It's magical (yes, I said magical and mean it!) how much better you will fell once you get our nutrition down!
Also - I swear by Zensah compression socks. They look funny, but feel good. I ran my first marathon in a pair a few weeks ago and felt awesome! I also sleep in them every night (well, my pink pair).
Happy training!
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