I started running in my mid-twenties, am a mid 30 yo female with full time job. I became obsessed over running and improving. I read all the books, had a coach at some time and improved my HM time from 2:00 to 1:33, had the best results using JD. But now I’m not making any progress any more. Everyone is PRing without less effort. I train hard and more enthusiastic than a lot of people around me but I never get my reward. I am 5’4 and weigh 59 kgs. There was a time I lost weight to get faster (weighed 55 kgs), ran about 110-120 km a week because I’ve often read that more are helpful but I still did not improve and felt fatigued all the time. Right now I’m training for a Marathon. Running around 80-100 k a week on 5-6 days, usually run a marathon tempo and threshold runs, one longrun and easy runs. On race day I’m always nervous und anxious. Iron and vitamins seem to be ok. I still haven’t found out what stimulus my muscles respond best to and what muscle type I am. For instance: I prefer Intervals over long tempos and if I don’t go out too fast I have a good kick in the end. BUT: my racetimes from
5k to marathon get worse the shorter the distance (according to all those tables) plus in a race I need some time until my engines working and then it goes quite well. Starting just a little fast seems to be more toxic for me than for others. Sometimes I have the feeling when I concentrate on intensity more and do less easy sessions my results get worse. And I’m not sure if tapering works for me: During training I often feel so much stronger than in races and have the feeling that there’s some unused potential. But then my races don’t work out as expected and I just think maybe I am just too old/fat and/or not talented enough and want to quit everything out of disappointment (still can’t because I love running and am somewhat addicted). Can someone help me find the missing puzzle piece?
