[S]he Conquers Who Endures

7 miles recovery run AP: 9:22 min/mi. I was supposed to run tempo today but the fatigue in my legs was pretty bad, my energy levels were low, and I was not up for fighting the wicked head wind. After my bad tempo last week, I really need a good tempo this week. I'm hoping the trail run Saturday didn't mess that up. I'm not sure why it's taking so long to recover. I took a complete rest day yesterday, have been eating cleaner than the virgin Mary, have been resting and wearing compression gear. I'm worried something is up with my blood levels. Maybe this celiac thing isn't under control like I thought. Ugh, gonna work from home today to rest up. My resting hr was up yesterday morning and today (47 BPM, normally it's around 42 BPM). I scheduled a dr's appt for Wed, but need to get an awesome tempo in tomorrow! Do the trails really leave you that fatigued?

Another failed workout. Something is definitely wrong. I tried to hit my tempo today after an easy day yesterday. First mile was 7:21, the second was somewhere around 7:35. Then 0.5 mile into the third I couldn't break 8s so I shut it down and walked. The rest of my run consisted of trying to jog but hardly able to break 10 min/mi pace and having to walk. I ate a protein bar right away, then started getting pain in my chest and lightheadedness. I had a drs appointment for tomorrow to address this fatigue, but decided I needed to go to urgent care. Got blood work drawn hopefully I will find the answer soon. Now I am losing vision everytime I stand up. Not sure if that's from drawing blood. Pushing water, and called the dr. Dr. said my CBC was normal. Ugh, hopefully some of the other tests will find something. Day 3 of sitting on the couch.

I really don't think I'm overtraining. My mileage is so low and I've been eating super clean and consistently get 7-9 h sleep per night. I don't know...

AM: 5 easy miles trying to keep my hr below 140. The beginning felt really, really hard because of the fatigue even though my hr was low. My legs perked up towards the end. AP 9:35 min/mi

So the dr couldn't find anything wrong and could not explain my fatigue. My thyroid was slightly low, and my ferritin was 56 ng/mL. Not too low, but I'm reading an article that says for endurance athletes it should be higher than 60 and elites target 70 -100. I know I'm not elite but maybe it would help to bring it up? I don't know what any other explanation would be. They checked my heart (no mumur), oxygen in blood (98%), EKG was normal, CBC normal, no lyme's, normal B12. I'm no longer losing vision when I stand at least!

PM: 3 miles easy. Pulled out the old Pegasus. I know I'm grasping for straws but I started getting fast when I ran in Pegs, then my running world seemed to fall apart once I switched to 4 mm drop shoes. AP staying below 140 bpm: 8:59 min/mi

7 easy miles again staying below 140 bpm. AP: 9:15 min/mi. A running friend suggested I reached overreaching or overtraining. If that's the case, I'm hoping for overreaching which would mean if I take it easy the next few days I should feel better next week. I'm thinking my resting heart rate supports this?:

Week I felt good and suspect I pushed too hard:

42, 45, 43, 45 (5 mile tempo), 42, 47 (nervous about run, 10 MP miles) AVG: 44

Week I was supposed to be recovering:

44, 46 (4 mile blah tempo w speed), 46, 39, 42 (12 mile long run on trails 979 ft gain), 47 AVG: 44

Week I tanked completely:

47, 47 (failed tempo), 44, 46, 47 AVG: 46.2

I surlely don't know, but at least I am able to run now.

Resting HR: 43

Was planning on 10 miles easy to cap off my fatigued week at 40 miles keeping some road on my bones. 1.5 miles in at a slow 9:25 min/mi AP, the alarms went off in my head and I shut down. The slow pace did not feel comfortable and I couldn't stomach sustaining that for 10 miles, while not enjoying the run. I went into panick mode and called my fiance and discussed how it seems like I'm just not enjoying running anymore. It's true. It seems I have been waiting for something to kick in, for a switch to spontaneously flip and then things will be easier. I decided to walk home. I hate running 9:25s and it just makes my hamstrings hurt. 

Then I had an epiphany. What I enjoyed about my training in Feb/March was the rush of doing intervals on the treadmill and track and feeling exhilirated the rest of the day. I have only done 1 session of 10x1 min on/off since April and no other interval sessions since April! My first few tempo runs went well, but then they started feeling so exhausting to do repeatedly for that length of time (35+ minutes).

I decided to grab for one last straw on my walk back home. I wanted to repeat a super old workout from the Runner's World Intermediate training plan: 1 mile MP, 400 m recovery, 2x800 m @ 10k with 200 m recoveries, 4x200 m @ 5k with 200 m recoveries. I went to the treadmill I had trainined on during the winter when training was fun and the roads were slick with ice and snow. I did a 0.5 mile wu, then went for the workout. The first mile: 7:41 it felt harder than when I did 10 miles of that pace a few weeks ago, my chest felt constricted but I kept going. Then the 0.5 mile repeats were at 6:53 min/mi pace which is the fastest/longest I've done since April.  I thougth the last sets were 400s but kept my phone on with the workout and was kinda shocked I only had 200s left. I hit those: 6:39, 6:37, 6:31, 6:22 min/mi pace. I actually was trying to think of other intervals to through in there because I had more in the tank. 

At this point I'm really confused with what's going on with my body. The fatigue was truly there, not mental and I still feel it a bit. Don't think I'm crazy, but I have this two system energy theory. Do we have an endurance system and a speed system? I know I have probably worked my endurance system to death with all the cross-training and low intensity runs. It seems like my speed system is ready to be worked. 

I don't know if that's possible. My new strategy is to forget about the Philadelphia Marathon. I plan on forgetting about my mileage and start throwing back in more interval speed/tempo running and just find the fun again. I wasn't so bummed about my stress fracture initially because the fun for me was the training I was able to do.