Basic question: how does the fatigue of doubling in the marathon show up? When someone wins the Oly marathon and doubles back for the fall, do they see it in their training after recovered (i.e., their training doesn't go as well), or do they only see it in the race?
I just ran two marathons this fall, nine weeks apart. Ran six seconds slower the second time. Probably approximately equivalent courses and weather.
My question: the training went really well for the second marathon--in fact, even better than it went for the first. I didn't feel unusual fatigue (it's the first time I've doubled like this).
But the race didn't pan out. I expected to be able to run quite a bit faster, or at least a little bit faster, but, even though I ran a better-paced race (slower first half), I didn't have more gas in those final miles.
Obviously there could be many causes. But could there be leftover fatigue from my first race that I didn't notice? Should I be able to see this in my build-up for the second race, or could it be that training goes well, but there is still some residual fatigue in the final miles that doesn't show up in training (and only shows up in the final miles of a real race effort)?
Thanks for any advice.