Unusual fatigue, heavy feeling question

Most XC summer camps are just places for motivated kids to overtrain. If your son is saying he's overly tired, he knows. If he's speaking up, well that's a good thing. Getting good in this sport means learning to listen to your own body.

When the coach says go run off a cliff, you don't really want your kid answering, " How many times and how much rest between the reps?"

Sometimes the most competitive thing a runner can do is take a rest. It seems to have worked for Bekele.

Ann Marie, your concern is well founded. I can tell that you care deeply about your son. This is good.

Since he is in high school, this is a perfect chance for him to find out just how much is too much. It's better for him to learn now than when he is in his 30's.

When I started training very very hard, it was in college, and I was running 2 times a day, everyday. Yes, I got very very tired and feeling heavy, however, the deep down strength that you can get from high mileage training can last for YEARS.

To bring you to the present day, I trained THREE times a day in June and now, in August, I can train hard and my muscles do not get sore at all.

What you should do is have his blood levels monitored. Also getting him into see a massage therapist twice a week will help a lot. I get my blood cells and iron analyzed every month, and also my other minerals such as copper, zinc, anti-oxidants, vitamins and everything else analyzed twice a year.

The body can only handle so much stress, and running is only stress, nothing else. It's the body's response to the stress of running that makes us stronger. Sometimes a lot of stress can be good, sometimes bad. It depends on just how much your son can handle. There is a very fine line between enough and too much. A lot of us on this message board are very good runners, but most all of us have made the mistake of doing too much mileage too fast.

So what I am saying is yes, let your son flog it hard and fight hard. He won't come home in a body bag, but then again he may come out of it stronger than ever. For example yesterday I did not want to train, but I know that I have to in order to achieve my goals, so I went to the track anyway, and ran a very good ten mile tempo run about 5:05 per mile. Now I am feeling great mentally, but today I will go slow.

OK all the best to your son.

Jason

I attended a CC camp before my senior year and they basically beat the hell out of us - 10-18 miles a day, 3 runs each day. Some sort of a race (track, road or cc) EACH day. So, as others have mentioned, it could just be the nature of the camp and running A LOT.

However, two things worth checking out are iron levels and a mono test. It is probably unlikely that his iron is low, or that he has mono - but, if he does, it is certainly worth finding out early rather than late. Each of these conditions can cause heavy, exhaustive feelings.

If you get an iron test - either get a hematocrit or a hemoglobin test. Get the NUMBER from the doctor. DO NOT let him tell you that your son is "normal." Normal for an average person is not normal for a distance runner. If you get the blood test numbers, post them on here and I am positive that you can get a good insight into whether or not they are "normal" for a distance runner.

One other thing - one problem with these camps is that they can introduce an overly competitive aspect to training. Kids want to "do well" and it is not uncommon for them to push outside their own limits to run with those around them. That is fine if you are in a race, but if you do this from one workout to the next, it will eat you up.

If they are doing a "tempo" run, and 5 guys are actually running at 80-85% of their max effort, but your son needs to run at 95% of his effort to stay with them, he is not really doing the same workout. Same with a nice aerobic run - if other kids are running at 70% effort, but he is running at 85% effort, it takes another chunk out of the tank.

Whenever any of our kids go to a camp I HEAVILY emphasize the importance of running within themselves, at their own paces. We also are very strict about only allowing our kids to train at paces based off of their current race paces. The cumulative affect of several sessions of "pushing" one's self can really drain you. ALso, it tends to be counterproductive from my experience.

Progress in distance running is based on consistency over time, and gradual increase in the cahllenges you place on your body. A concept we emphasize with our runners is that one workout will never make you significantly better - but, one workout does have the ability to make you significantly worse. We want our kids running at their own current ability levels for aerobic running, threshold running, race pace running etc. As they race faster, they train faster. Racing in practice almost always ends unhappily - these summer camps often promote that - whether they intend to or not.

goblin wrote:

Nobody asked about you Mayeroff.

Ah yes she didn't, but I guess you are too idiotic to realize that I was just trying to explain the philosophy of "hard training" to a worried mom. Gosh, maybe I shouldn't care so much about other people. Maybe I should be more selfish and not give a damn.

He may not be sleeping well. He is in a different environment and on a different schedule in addition to running more. The running pace is also quickened in a group. Running camp is designed to tire you out. They should have a speaker there who explains stress and rest. It probably is nothing to worry about. Mono and low iron levels dont just happen.

yeah, that's the problem. depending on who is there and their capabilities, every session can become a race if you're not careful (and especially at that age, it can be hard to take a step back and run the sessions correctly for you, rather than try to beat everyone in them and get carried away).

he probably just is really tired, as he says.

make sure he gets some rest, good food, quality sleep, and takes it easy when he gets back. simple stuff but it works. what he SHOULDNT do is come back and throw himself straight into hard training if he's feeling like that.

goblin wrote:

Nobody asked about you Mayeroff.

God that link is everywhere I go!

Get out of here with that!

Ann Marie,

While others here have provided excellent reasons for your son,s fatigue, might I suggest he start eating a bit of raw parsley everyday. Sounds strange, but chased with some orange juice it is a fine and simple way to get a lot of iron into the system.

This happened to a decent kid we were coaching. His times were going downhill, physical testing showed no problems. But he was lethargic, said he felt heavy, couldn't get motivated. Turned out he was highly depressed. Some things were corrected in his life and he went back to normal.

My check list for those who feel heavy and not so great is

(1) Are you losing weight or on some wierd diet?

(2) Has your sleep pattern changed significantly lately?

(3) Are you encountering some new stress outside running?

(4) Has training stress increased significantly lately?

(5) If no to these, then it's time for a blood test -- check for hemglobin/hematocrit, and mono (the three most typical problems for this age group), and has been suggested already, get the numbers, not just a statement that "you are in the normal range."

Yup! Your runner is being overtrained! Most of the running camps have the kids running twice, three times a day and that is too much for most American kids now days. The good part is he is probably getting into better running condition than he ever was before IF the camp is good. BUT, if the camp is putting him into weight training, general fitness excercises, or stretching more than 5 minutes, the camp is in serious error. It is like taking a race horse and using it to plow your field. Plenty of muscle development but no good for his running.

You guys are ignoring that her son does this every year. You're talking about aspects of the camp... but he was fine with them in the past.

Did he take any time off after track season? How much time and was it consistent with past years? I'd say either blood tests to confirm iron, etc.. or if he has been training very hard with no time off after track season, then maybe 2 weeks off. If he's been training well, then he'll come back great from the 2 weeks.