Dead legs - should I keep running but just go really slow?

I'm taking today off, and then planning to possibly try a tempo run tomorrow (so nothing too difficult). We'll see how that goes. I may try running a little bit less on my easy days too so that my workouts can be quality.

Your best bet is to quite pushing the envelope. Take a few days off. Don't ride a bike or do anything but be on your feet as you normally would during the course of a day.

Your leg muscles are severly lacking glycogen, so carb up for a few days as well. Eat pasta, bread,rice, pizza or anything like that. Between a few days rest and some good carbs, you should see more zip in your legs.

You might want to run easy the first day back. Once you get back to normal...train a a little smarter.

Take a day off and then run 45 min or six miles for 2-3 days easy and you'll be fine. Don't just go cold-turkey, but lay off on time and distance and let your body catch up. You'll be fine.

well i just ate a bunch of junk food today (was eating well the last few days). will try running easy tomorrow, maybe tempoing.

When was the last time you bought a new pair of shoes?

My shoes have about 500-600 miles on them, going to get new ones soon. Skipped a tempo today but did an hour long run.. felt average, not bad but not great either. Tried to pick it up a little near the end. Going to try another run later today (easy 30 min) then a run tomorrow and maybe a workout Thursday.

Slow down, even the runs where you said you were going to take easy you say you started to pick it up, slow down brother you will be fine. Eat well, take an ice bath, do some 100 meter strides anything longer you are going to go back to being dead. You are ready to run fast, you just have to convince your mind that, because it tells you that you need to train harder. There is not much you can do the last 2 weeks before a big race other than undue all the good that you have done over the months of hard training. Good luck my friend and trust in all the work that you have already done.

Thanks. It sucks because I put in a great summer but the last few weeks have been really discouraging. I'd like to at least do 1 (or 2 easy) workouts before the race.

did my evening run (just 30 min) about 4.5 hours after my morning run. legs didn't feel great starting out.. again, felt average throughout. really frustrating how slow my runs are..

definitely buy new shoes.

and think about every medicine you take - iron supplements don't always work and sometimes actually drain you of energy. Allergy medicine can weaken you. Just because a medicine was harmless in the past doesn't mean it is harmless now - try getting off all the chemicals.

I always do the lydiard thing when I am in your situation - run for 2 or 2.5 hours freely and easily, no watch, preferably in a new place.

And I try to get to sleep until I wake up naturally.

did an easy hour run today.. again slow, didn't feel good or bad. frustrating, i havent run this slow in a while, even on easy runs. did a few strides after. thinking about doing this workout tomorrow: mile, 1200, mile, 1200 all w/ 400 jog just to get things moving a bit.

First, don't be a slave to mileage. Your first post indicated you really didn't want to take time off because your mileage would take a big hit. Forget about the mileage, listen to your body. Sometimes like everyone has been telling you, take a day or two off. Monitor your sleep, eat right and as a last resort, get some blood work done if things don't turn around. Since you did not say anything about general fatigue, I suspect with rest, proper diet and the right combination of workouts, including very slow easy days, things will sort out quickly.

I took the day off, and the last 2 days have been pretty average runs, slow. I did get a blood test and everything was fine. So I guess I will try the workout I mentioned above and see how it goes...? And take my easy days easy, but it feels so weird/out of shape/pathetic running so slow

Listen:

People are offering you advice, but you will do what you want regardless as this thread already shows. That said, take this anyway you want.

I had dead legs last year. Took 3weeks off. Completely off! Nothing! Notta! I did not test them every other day, I did not go for slow hour runs, I did not do anything physically active and when I tried running after three weeks of nothin, I eased back into it even though my legs felt great.

The fact that your blood work is normal, like mine was, proves that you are overtrained. For me I've found that long periods of slow running without speed work leave me very flat.

You've tried the long easy running, that is not working. If you want to have any hope of saving your season, take a period of down time. Or, you could continue floundering in slowness, I could really care less.

help me out here... wrote:

Yes, I've been pretty good on sleep. I havent done my 2 hour run yet today, but my easy 65 min run yesterday was fine (very slow). I was going to keep it realllly easy though.. the Lydiard way..

I agree with how you're working through this and maybe in your situation Lydiard would have agreed also.

However, really SLOW runs are not at all the Lydiard way. I hate when that gets attached to him

I can't afford to do that though.. I need to race really well in just over a week.

OK at this point, you are running like shit every day anyway right? So that said what makes you think that things are gonna magically improve in a week? Stupid American mentality: Afraid to take days off cause you just gotta get those miles in. hahaha.

Exactly what I said: No matter the advice you get here, you are going to do what you want so why even waste our time by asking for opinions?

You need rest, you need to freshen up, and you need to stimulate your nervous system. Alternate days:

Rest day

2 mile warmup, then 8 x 100m strides, 1 mile cooldown

Rest day

2 mile warmup, interval session around race pace

Rest day

2 mile warmup, then 8 x 100m strides, 1 mile cooldown

Rest day

Race

EVERYBODY eases up the week before a big race, even the mileage maniacs. So do what everyone is telling you.

warning long post:

Okay, I'm going to listen to you all now, I agree I was being dumb and holding onto some hope that I could do a workout. let me just give you some background.. i am a CC transfer trying to walk onto the team at my school. I ran a consistent 80-90 mpw over the summer and felt like I got into the best shape of my life. But then 2 weeks before the first meet i got sick, just some virus. I felt like I got over "symptoms" not too long but just felt fatigued and tired and dropped down to 40-50 mpw (including a day off in there), just easy runs of usually 4-7 miles and feeling all around bad. somehow i felt better the day of the first meet and ran a good race for me.. but the coach told me I was close but still had a little ways to go so to try to run another race.

anyway, now I was feeling good again after this race, no longer fatigued and tired so I went back up to 80 mpw and felt good and got in some good workouts (one particular workout was probably the best one i'd ever done), but kept them controlled. however the day after i did my best workout (tuesday), a friend wanted to go on a run with me and pushed the pace really hard and i stupidly kept up. the next 2 days i didnt feel that great, just average.. but at the race I really sucked, I started out at a reasonable pace (what I went out in at the prevous race) but then my legs felt awful and I slowed down a lot and finished in a bad time, way off of what I wanted to run.

Since then I started running normal mileage again (70-80) but kept it slower and felt like I rebounded back.. after that bad race I did my usual length runs but kept them progression like (my bread and butter) and even got in a hill workout. then last wednesday, I did a 30 min tempo for which I felt good (legs felt fine), but then since then is when my legs have been feeling really bad and dead. I attempted the workout of mile, 1200, mile, 1200 today but started out not that fast and just got slower (legs felt dead too) so I cut it and realized that I need to listen to all of you. my race is next saturday.. so I have just over a week. i'm paranoid about taking days off (i feel like I lose fitness quickly) but i guess at this point nothing will help and I need to somehow recover and hope for the best and go into the race fresh.

so should I take another day off? and then run easy + strides every other day? should I try another "light" session like eurodonkey says days before the race (just to see if I can run okay and won't embarass myself at the race)?