100+ a Week and SUCKING!

Drop the mileage ...hello? Anyone home?? If you're in peak competition period you should be reducing it automatically.

6 weeks is more than enough, go back to doing 80+ miles a week and quality workouts, before it's too late. There was no reason to increase your mileage if your times were still improving.

Do you run for the University of South Dakota?

I don't run for south dakota. I had already planned on dropping my mileage this week. Moving a from a focus on miles to faster intervals. Anything else? I know my diet is up to par, but I just feel weak and depleated. What was a job a month ago is a struggle now.

Try getting some extra rest for a week. Seems pretty obvious to me.

based on my own experiance, stay at 80mpw until you stop making significant improvements, than up the mileage roughly 10-15%

Those are strong PR's. I would worry less about miles per week and more about quality running mixed in with recovery days (HR @ 70% or under).

you reached your peak. you're done... burnout. Start preparing for next year.

Talk with your coach. If he's smart he would've noticed your struggles pretty quickly.

Make sure you don't hammer your intervals too fast. You can drop your miles, but if you run too hard, you will still be overtrained and not race as well. The only thing you should concentrate on now is being rested and racing fast.

As I am sure you've figured out, you're slightly overtrained. It's not the end of the world--if you were *really* overtrained, you'd be running 27:30 instead of 25:30. There's stil time.

Here's what I would do. Have you taken a day completely off lately? If not, do so immediately. Don't run for an entire day. Sleep in. Don't crosstrain. Don't lift weights. Try not to think about running at all.

As others have suggested, you should reduce your mileage. But don't make the reduction too drastic--returning to your summer level of 80 per week (where you saw lots of improvement) is a good idea.

Does your schedule include a weekly long run of longer than 15 miles? If so, knock it off. 20 milers are great during your summer base building phase, but they are likely to do more harm than good at this point, especially if you're feeling tired.

You indicated that you want to shift your workout focus from miles to shorter intervals. Be careful with this. Although it is a good idea to focus on turnover at this stage, you don't need a lot of intervals to sharpen up. Doing a lot of anerobic work (i.e, a high volume of short repetitions with minimal rest) will probably make you feel worse.

Best of luck.

get a blood test! Check haemoglobin (sp?) and ferrotin (sp?) After all the training it\'s quite possible you are low in iron

All this numbers thing is meaningless,you could get knackerd on 30mpw if you run hard enough.

Its not the numbers that make you fit its the routine period

iron man wrote:

All this numbers thing is meaningless,you could get knackerd on 30mpw if you run hard enough.

Its not the numbers that make you fit its the routine period

very true

A teammate of mine whose a junior right now is running 16:00 flats for the 5k and is only running 20-25mpw. But he is VERY consistant on his training and that has shown to be the big factor in his improvement. I remember last year he ran 20-25mpw at roughly a 6:50 mile pace, this year hes been running all his miles at a 6:10 mile pace.

OK guys I really appreciate the feedback, and I'll throw out a big FU to the dude who said "burnt out". I've been trying to get lots of antioxidants, (blueberries, prunes, other fruit). as far as Iron goes, red meat maybe 3 times a week along with a daily multiple. I've also been taking Endurox Excel for about 2.5 months, its the pills not powder.

3.5 Miles this morning, down from 5-6, This afternoons workout is 1 mile (4:50ish), then 8*1000, 3flat to 3:05. as many of you know cross country is not a democracy. coach says this is the workout, well then this is the workout, just praying for some fresh legs.

1. Check for overtraining.

2. Get a blood work up. Overtraining and just training can gradually lower your ferritin levels. without the blood work up you cannot go from A to B otherwise you are just experimenting.

3. In the meantime get plenty of rest and start cutting back on the mileage. Cut out any coffe or tea. especially when eating your iron rich meals. Drink plenty of OJ with your meal as it allows your body to absorb iron (2X more effective). another thing - cut out the dairy products when eating your iron meal (it is a iron inhibitor). Again, get the blood work up - it is that important. Get a copy of the report and show your trainer and coach.

Good luck!

I have a question. What were your paces like during the summer vs. running with your team in September? Seems to me that most college runners (I use to be one) run their "easy" or "regular" runs too fast. I think it is possible that you are running the mileage too fast and that is causing your poor performances. If you are forced to maintain the faster paces dropping the mileage with help with recovery.

What is the University of South Dakota?

Well, recovery runs have on occasion been a bit fast. What I've been trying to do is keep pace workouts and recovery with guys running 80's while i'm in the 100's, although its not that big of a deal.

I'll look into the blood work. I drink OJ when taking the daily multiple, and I drink 2 cups of coffee a day, but always have. 2 cups? can't be that bad for you.

So I'm pretty much cutting down on mileage, workouts are dictated by the coach. Also, i hit up a cliff or balance bar and gatorade right after workouts.

What else other than dropping mileage, and blood work. It seems like i'm doing everything else.

I'll post the results of the workout later tonight.