Why are my times suffering?

Is it summer where you live? Have you ruled out increased temperature and humidity?

Yeah, I'm from the UK where it is hardly ever humid or too hoot during summer and out of my four years running I have never experienced a drop of performance during the summer.

how much are you sleeping

okayb wrote:

how much are you sleeping

How many miles are you running? Have you increased your mileage lately? Have you been running the same workouts for a while?

pop_pop!_v2.2.1 wrote:

okayb wrote:

how much are you sleeping

How many miles are you running? Have you increased your mileage lately? Have you been running the same workouts for a while?

Increased from 15 mpw to about 30 mpw but have been taking a down week every 3 weeks.

Also as for the sleeping, about 7 hours a night so not great but not at all bad in any way.

I would have your iron levels checked.

A complete blood count and the less common Ferritin test might reveal an issue.

In the eastern US when this happens to an athlete of mine it's usually one of three things:

1) Anemia

2) Mono

3) Lyme Disease

otter wrote:

I would have your iron levels checked.

A complete blood count and the less common Ferritin test might reveal an issue.

In the eastern US when this happens to an athlete of mine it's usually one of three things:

1) Anemia

2) Mono

3) Lyme Disease

Had a lot of tests lately. My ferritin was over 40 (good limits) and lyme and mono were ruled out. Parasites were also ruled out.

Kal 1995 wrote:

otter wrote:

I would have your iron levels checked.

A complete blood count and the less common Ferritin test might reveal an issue.

In the eastern US when this happens to an athlete of mine it's usually one of three things:

1) Anemia

2) Mono

3) Lyme Disease

Had a lot of tests lately. My ferritin was over 40 (good limits) and lyme and mono were ruled out. Parasites were also ruled out.

Could you post a couple of months of your training here?

Maybe we can have a look at it and figure out what might be going on. Maybe not, but it couldn't hurt.

otter wrote:

Kal 1995 wrote:

Had a lot of tests lately. My ferritin was over 40 (good limits) and lyme and mono were ruled out. Parasites were also ruled out.

Could you post a couple of months of your training here?

Maybe we can have a look at it and figure out what might be going on. Maybe not, but it couldn't hurt.

Monday : 4 miles easy (9:00-9:45 pace depending on feel) + 4x150m or 4x60m hill sprints (optional)

Tuesday: 3x800 (6:50-7:20 pace depending on feel)

Wednesday: 4 miles easy plus bike ride (double)

Thursday: 4 miles moderate (8:25-8:40 pace) + 8x100m strides @14-16sec

Friday: 3 miles tempo (7:45-7:55 pace)

Saturday: off or easy or bike

Sunday: long run (7 miles/11 miles alternating weeks) + 3-5x200m strides @45 secs

I think I'm training quite well but as with most training plans there is always room for improvement. My weeks vary, sometimes I do 400 repeats instead of a tempo, some weeks I do strides four times a week and others twice a week depending on feel. I just don't have the same amount of power in my legs (or my lungs) as I did a few months back. I'm going to take an off week this week as it seems like a smart thing to do, I feel fatigued.

I'm far from any expert, but if it were me I would approach it like this. I would first take two days off from running consecutively. My first day off I would try to get some energy back into my body by eating plenty of carbs, hydrating well and ensuring I urined clear all day, and getting a good 9+ hours of sleep. My second day off i would again hydrate very well and focus on stretching out any areas of concern and again focus on getting 9+ hours of sleep. The rest of the days in the week I would build back up running about 15 to 30 sec slower (per mile pace) starting with a 25 min super easy run. The following day a super easy 30 min run. Day after that super easy 40 min run. Day after that a super easy 30 min run. After that I should be feeling extremely geared up for a workout but instead i will opt for my normal easy paced for 55/60 min and call it my long run. The following week. So my first recovery week has zero speed or tempo paces only one day at my usual easy pace of 60 min from a previous week. The second week should be 6 days easy 1 day of your tempo/speed. The following week after that (week 3) things should feel back to normal.

I went through a similar experience before with feeling like i was over exerting on my usual easy paces. I decided to take a larger than usual down week. It's what worked well for me, perhaps it can work for you. About my 4th or 5th day it was hard to keep myself running extremely slower than usual but I wanted to ensure I would be well recovered during my super easy recovery week. Like i said I'm no pro but this got me out of a plateau and got me feeling my usual self in short time. Good luck to you.

Thank you. I will try this approach :) I'm going to take a week off as opposed to two days because my body takes longer to recover as I suffer from chronic illness (thyroid disease).