fatigue

Well, I'm in a somewhat similar situation and don't have any explinations for it. I'm sorry I couldn't be any help, but I just thought I'd let you know you're not alone.

i have been there, was a 353 1500 meter runner and then the summer before my senior year i ran into a very similar situation...i tried to progress through it for a month and a half but things got worse and worse. the best thing to do would be to take 2 weeks completely off. no biking swimming or running, eat right and sleep plenty. after a week off come back with some LIGHT swimming and or biking. then after that week start running again lightly at first building back by 5-10 miles per week, for the first two weeks then 10-15 after that. you wont loose that much fitness. you'll be fine. watch that you dont push it to hard trying to come back though....good luck...i know its frustrating but in a few months you'll be even stronger just be smart.

oh also...are you feeling light headed....when you stand up after sitting for a while do you start to black out? do your upper body muscles burn while you are running, especially your shoulder region and upper arms? if this is the case you may have become acutely anemic in which case you should go see a doctor asap, one sure fire way to tell is poop color...black means your loosing iron from internal bleeding or not absorbing, white and you don't have iron in your system...just a thought...may not be this but could be...

Not the OP, but I have the lightheaded thing going, and actually came on here tonight searching for "overtraining" threads. I've been going balls-to-the-wall all summer and enjoyed it immensely, even congratulating myself that my body was handling it just fine...till two of the last three nights, just the thought of doing my supplemental (cross-training, gym <--injury) workout was just repulsive to me...usually I can push through it once I start, this time though, I sat in the gym for half an hour and just could not get myself to go do it...though I wanted to want to. I'm absolutely paranoid about gaining weight and losing fitness, and don't want to back off. I even treated myself to a nice 7-oz. steak because my body seemed to want iron, but feel guilty as hell about not finishing the workout. Is this normal?

I have been feeling tired a lot, but that may just be a result of my lack of sleep/waiting around in airports. Right now I think I'm a little sick (a bit or a sore throat, I've been sneezing too), but that didn't start until Tuesdayish.

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sssssssss wrote:

just the thought of doing my supplemental (cross-training, gym <--injury) workout was just repulsive to me......

The thought that doing any crosstaining repulsed you is so familar! i finally figured out when i got to that point that it's time to back off, eat whatever you crave, sleep as much as you want and just take a break. you've done the work and by doing more work, you are just wasting all of the work you already put in cause you are not recovering.

back off for a couple of weeks and tell yourself "i am gaining fitness by not training".

sssssssss wrote:I'm absolutely paranoid about gaining weight and losing fitness, and don't want to back off. I even treated myself to a nice 7-oz. steak because my body seemed to want iron, but feel guilty as hell about not finishing the workout. Is this normal?

Another vote here that you're doing the right thing. DO NOT IGNORE YOUR BODY OR YOU WILL REGRET IT.

There are a million threads on this, but get tested for iron deficiency (serum ferritin) and mono/epstein-barr virus. These are the most frequent prompters of incessant fatigue, besides just general overtraining.

I just got back from the doctor. She saw that I had a very red throat, so gave me a strep test, but the quick version came back negative. I also got blood drawn to test for anemia, mono, and cholesterol (not sure why).

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see a dr. could be something serious.Alberto Salazar nearly died.

I got a call from the doctor this morning telling me that the results for anemia and mono both came back negative and that all of those were normal. Does anyone have any other ideas?

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then most likely you are over trained take two weeks off

Did the doctor check your serum ferritin levels? Just looking at things like hemoglobin content alone do not tell the entire story (msot doctors not familiar with endurance athletes are very ignorant about this). My Hgb was normal, but my serum ferritin (iron storage) was rather low (~ 12), and when I started supplementing with ferrous sulfate (prescription iron), my performances improved dramatically. Do a search for some of the iron threads on here. There's a ton of good info.

I'm not really sure, I'll look into that - thanks