Fatigued and weak legs, out of breath for no reason

Repost this in paragraphs if you want anyone to read it.

Background: a week before sections during outdoor track I took a week off totally due to being sick. Came back the next week which was the week of sections and my last week of outdoor track. I took 10 days off completely and started xc training. The first week was 30mi ish all relatively easy pace however I did feel tired slightly. Also during the 1st week about 4 days into it I got sick again, colds and sore throat. The next week I ran about 35 mi easy paced runs and felt tired, I guess probably because I was still sick. Btw my easy pace runs are usually 6:50-7:30 pace. I was running these runs at 7:30 pace feeling tired so I slowed them down to 8:00 pace which felt alright(during the second week). The start of the third week I noticed my legs were extremely tired kinda weak and I was getting out of breath quickly even going up the stairs. First thing I thought and still think is that I'm overtrainined and should've taken more time off but then I talked to my friend who runs in college(he's fast) and he says it could be iron deficiency which idk because I eat a lot of meats often. But who knows. I did have a intense indoor and outdoor season because my coach has no real good idea of what he's doing. We would do the same workouts every week and like 3-4 speed workouts a week sometimes all 3 were back to back lol. My question is what should I do it's still June. And I really wanna run STRONG this season preferably around early October. I was thinking should take this week off from running totally and do cross training then work back into but I have no idea lol last summer I worked up to 50-60mpw comfortabley without problems(probably a little overtrained). I want to work up to about 60-70 this summer. Also sometimes when I sit down the surface skin on my legs kinda bubbles and my hamstrings sometimes feel like they are burning slightly(lactic) feeling. Any help would deeply be appreciated. Btw my xc coach knows how to periodize training unlike my track coach( they don't really get along lol).

I had kinda the same thing. Drinking way more water than I thought I needed to really helped my energy levels, I feel a lot better. Take it easy for the next week or so but you don't have to stop running and make sure you eat a lot and drink lots of water.

Ok thanks I'll try to drink more water and see if that helps my energy levels. But this week I think I'm going to do the elliptical and maybe swim a lot.

yeah just drink a ton of water and maybe try and go eat a big huge dinner for a few nights to give you back energy. This happens to me like once a year and when it happens I just go have a giant pasta dinner or something and I feel energized the next day, but maybe this is just me

Not gonna read that blob of text...

Going by the title, I would say check your iron levels. You could be anemic.

In order to alleviate this issue, I would suggest writing significantly less.

Sorry about that but I wanted the specific details in,for possibly a simpler solution cause saying fatigued legs could lead to endless solutions especially in this sport

I got carried away lol. So basically my legs feel abnormally dead and my normal easy pace runs are harder. What should I do stop running and rest more/ cross train or suck it up? Thanks for the thought though appreciate it

Sounds like your body is telling you that you need more rest. Take a week off, get plenty of sleep and eat well, and see how you feel. That doesn't mean cross-train hard for a week. If you're still sluggish and lethargic after a week of rest, make a doc's appointment.

More salt

Sounds like a plan thanks bro

Get your iron levels checked, specifically FERRITIN. It wouldn't hurt to be tested for mono as well. Rule out medical causes, then decide whether you're overstrained and need time off.

I had the same exact thing happen to me during my XC summer training a couple years ago. I knew it wasn't over-training, because I have done that before and I know what that feels like (I can describe the difference if you want). It was just like all of sudden the amount of effort I was putting in did not match the amount of tiredness I felt. Easy runs dropped from 6:40 to 7:20. I couldn't hang on the intervals. My tempo's were terrible. It was super bizarre for me. Sometimes a 4 mile run was extremely exhausting. But nothing was SOO bad that it couldn't be attributed to tiredness or sickness, but I could tell something was different and wrong.

I read up on a bunch of different things, and decided to just take iron for a couple weeks. After a week I started feeling good again, and after 2 weeks I was running better that I had ever run. Made me think that I had been low on my ferritin levels for quite a while, and maybe for some reason I finally dropped below a threshold or something after getting sick. I told my mom about it and she said thats probably because my dad has mild anemia sometimes.

The way I felt afterward was super nice. I remember doing tempos and them feeling better than they had ever felt in over 6 years of running.

Yea I'm in your position rn. After track I took literally 10-12 days completely off and it's not like I've been been running hard the last two weeks, they were easy paced. But I definitely will check on that iron level. Thanks