What causes fatigue on easy runs?

Have you had your iron levels checked?

Lack of fitness?

so tired wrote:

I drink roughly 5-7 16oz glasses of water per day and sleep 6-7 hours a night.

One problem is that you're not getting enough sleep.

Do you overheat easily? Could be heat exhaustion although 75-80 isn't that hot. High humidity can be tough though.

Are you a Midwest guy? With the consistent rain (nearly every day this summer), the humidity levels have been higher than normal for this time of year. That coupled with a fairly cool spring is wreaking havoc with my runs as well.

Holy humidity, batman wrote:

Are you a Midwest guy? With the consistent rain (nearly every day this summer), the humidity levels have been higher than normal for this time of year. That coupled with a fairly cool spring is wreaking havoc with my runs as well.

Yep, I'm from northeast Kansas. It's dryer now than it has been but some days are still pretty bad humidity wise.

And T-Rex, no I haven't had my iron checked.

Dozy wrote:

so tired wrote:

I drink roughly 5-7 16oz glasses of water per day and sleep 6-7 hours a night.

One problem is that you're not getting enough sleep.

Nonsense. Adults should´t need more sleep!

I am 31 and need a solid 8-9 every night. I've always been this way. A week of 7.5-8 leaves me very fatigued. A couple days of 6-7 has me falling asleep and napping for 3 hours in the afternoon.

I should note that my point is not that everyone needs this much sleep. It's just highly variable from individual to individual.

Also, I need a full hour more sleep when I'm training hard. There have been long periods in the last decade where I didn't train at all in any sport, and 8 sold hours was plenty.

Decided to revive this thread because I'm still having the same problem as when I started it. Fatigue seems to come out of nowhere with no solid pattern in when it occurs. Since my last post here I have built up to 45mpw with 10% per week increases, and the really bad fatigue only happens on easy or long runs, never tempos or intervals. I still follow roughly the same diet and get about the same amount of sleep.

I have noticed what could possibly be a pattern or at least something like one, though. I eat what is probably too much sugar, and when I eat a few cookies or something the night before a run it sometimes turns out bad. This may have little or nothing to do with it but I'm not sure.

This whole issue has been really frustrating since it's starting to interfere with my consistency. My training seems like a slippery slope at times, like one little factor like sleep or diet or weather will make a run go downhill fast if it's not ideal.

well,. wrote:

Dozy wrote:

One problem is that you're not getting enough sleep.

Nonsense. Adults should´t need more sleep!

Idiot. He's a runner, not a lazy office worker.

Approx what can you do for 5K all-out? Be conservative.

I would also suggest issues related to low iron, but it could also be mono. I have had athletes with mono that feel fine in a workout and then drop off a cliff. Years ago doctors had kids with mono become nearly bed-ridden for weeks. Lately, they have counselled them to go until they are fatigued and then stop.

I suspect if you are doing intervals at this point that the volume is relatively low and the rest might be generous, so the fatigue cliff isn't arriving during those workouts.

so tired wrote:

What causes fatigue on easy ruins?

Running them too fast.

Definitely not enough sleep.

But also, the simplest theory is that you are running too fast on your "easy" days so the runs are not really easy for you.

If you are running 7:30 to 7:45 pace in 75 to 80 degrees and high humidity (such as 75% to 85% at those temperatures), that is roughly equivalent to 7:10 to 7:25 pace (or maybe faster) in cool weather. If we use Daniels' tables as a guide, that is about the easy pace for somebody who can race 4:47 to 4:55 1600 and 10:13 to 10:32 3200 or 16:34 to 17 flat 5K. Are those your race performances?

how do you define "easy"? wrote:

Definitely not enough sleep.

But also, the simplest theory is that you are running too fast on your "easy" days so the runs are not really easy for you.

If you are running 7:30 to 7:45 pace in 75 to 80 degrees and high humidity (such as 75% to 85% at those temperatures), that is roughly equivalent to 7:10 to 7:25 pace (or maybe faster) in cool weather. If we use Daniels' tables as a guide, that is about the easy pace for somebody who can race 4:47 to 4:55 1600 and 10:13 to 10:32 3200 or 16:34 to 17 flat 5K. Are those your race performances?

Based on what you've reported, diet sounds reasonable.

As a 30-something, former XC type, I too would recommend more sleep. Maybe not 9, but 6 sounds light... aim for 7:30 sleep a night at least? Try it for a week and see if it helps! Humidity is killer, so make sure your easy days are a pace that really is an easy pace. Heck, take a couple of the easy runs out at 8:00 or even 8:30. IF you're having to stop and walk the last 2 miles at yoru current pace, we can agree the present state is not acceptable, so slow one easy run waaaaaay down and see how that feels. It should feel stupid-simple. Good. Do a week or two that way. Experiment between pace and sleep. There's a happy medium for both, and you want to hit it. THe goal is to feel refreshed for your hard workouts... not walking in the last "easy" mile.

Another thought, where are you mentally on these runs? Is it "mental-demons?" Some folks get psyched out by long runs, tempos, etc... it could be you're mentally geared up for hard work out and rock your speedwork, but that you don't have that same mental focus on the easy workout, and just aren't staying focused from mile 4-6 -- could you try running the easy days with a slower friend? or even someone on a bike? Just something to distract you?

I will try sleeping more and drinking more water first. I'm also trying to eat less really sweet stuff to see if that helps. As for the mental stuff, I think I may be a little overzealous when it comes to training, and many of my teammates probably feel the same way. Often we will start a six miler at 7:20 and close at 6:40 without realizing how much we were speeding up. There seems to be an expectation on my team that to be really good you have to run fast not just on hard days, but all the time. So my mentality is usually like "I gotta go hard today if I'm gonna be on varsity, run fast times, etc." This routine of having "easy" days turn into harder efforts might help my fitness but is definitely wearing me out.

Some people were asking about my race times. I'm a mainly 800 runner in track and my PR is 2:12. I also ran one 1600 and one 3200 but totally blew them with awful pacing and ran 5:19 12:04. 5k ability right now is hard to say, buy I would guess 19:00 to 19:30.

I think you are figuring it out yourself, but your easy days are being run too fast. If your race times aren't fast enough to get you on varsity, then you just aren't at that level yet. Be patient and you will be.

I'd say your distance of those runs are a little long as well. If you are running 35-40 miles per week on 6 days running, and your easy day is 6 miles, how long is the long run?

You'd be better off with a 3-4 mile easy day (8:00/mile +). Workout days is where you get to see how you stack up to the varsity guys, but even then you shouldn't be running yourself into the ground.

Judging by those PRs you're running about a minute too fast for easy runs. Easy on easy days, hard on hard days.

I also think Diet and sleep are huge factors, when I'm not eating correctly I have the issue you described. Once I fix my diet for a few weeks (and obviously continue it through the season) I don't have those problems anymore. Same thing happens to me in rock climbing if I don't eat correctly.