Overtrained and tired - I just ran the worst race of my life. help me

Real perspective wrote:

High mileage? You're joking aren't you?

For a high schooler? Frankly, he ran too much.

Real perspective wrote:

Cuerpo wrote:

Alright dude, for serious, what happened to me last time I overtrained was I pushed through it for a month and a half and I got a stress reaction in my knee and I had to take a month off entirely from running/working out. You've been great with the high mileage, but its time to drop.

High mileage? You're joking aren't you?

For a junior in high school I'd say yes.

Sagarin wrote:]

For a high schooler? Frankly, he ran too much.

Wrong.

You can nitpick and continue to advocate high mileage all throughout the season... but to my knowledge it was this kids first seasonal attempt at big miles (90 mile weeks for a HS junior), and I think its the right thing to do to drop the miles down (because his base is built) for a month so he can safely raise his intensity. He'll always have the summer to get back up to 90-100.

malmo wrote:

Sagarin wrote:]

For a high schooler? Frankly, he ran too much.

Wrong.

Malmo - as much as I enjoy your quips, why don't you enlighten us a bit more as to your opinion on the op's difficulties? It seems you're often more content to play "20 questions," where you tell Letsrun pundits if they're right or wrong.

From my perspective, I'm surprised more people have not singled out the continuous racing (including a quadruple!) I fail to see how running a 3200-1600-800-400 split with 40+ minutes between events represents any kind of beneficial "workout." Rather, I think stunts like this kill your legs, especially given the mileage you've been doing.

dsrunner probably has the right take on things-the OP probably doesn't have that great of speed and is compensating by running a lot of miles, which is good for a marathon but for a 2 mile speed is still needed....

80 mpw is not too much for a 4:25/9:35 runner, but you are not there yet. 16:30 in XC does not indicate 9:35 running.

When I was running 9:35 indoors or outdoors I was running 15:35-40 on the road (ran a few raod 5k's as a junior in winter) and 15:50-ish on legit XC courses the Fall previously.

While I applaud your dedication to run 4-5 mornings a week, and to rack up 80 mpw in winter, nothing about this training really points to you being able to run 4:38 pace for 3200m.

The "tempos" at 6:10 pace are quite slow for a 4:25/9:35 runner. I guess the 7:00-pace is about right (add 1:40 to your 5k XC pace - some people use this rule), but other than racking up a lot of miles in 10-12 runs a week there isn't much here to base how good you are on.

Quadrupling that slowly isn't helping you and running 2:20/2:30 for a 1600 points to you being extremely tired.

My guess is that you are anemic, I hope it isn't something worse. I would make a doctor's appt. right away.

rejoinder wrote:

From my perspective, I'm surprised more people have not singled out the continuous racing (including a quadruple!) I fail to see how running a 3200-1600-800-400 split with 40+ minutes between events represents any kind of beneficial "workout." Rather, I think stunts like this kill your legs, especially given the mileage you've been doing.

Those are exactly the kinds of things high school kids should be doing. There's nothing more fun than competition. If they don't learn it when they are in high school, they'll forever be stuck in a dead end cycle of too-far long runs, too-fast tempo runs, training for "the future," never racing, and never improving -- like 99% of the people who post at Letsrun.

There's only one way to hone your racing saavy -- that's by racing. Do it and love it.

i think i know who this is, but anyways:

You're doing too much mileage. really you are. that is the number one reason for your fatigue (duh). Workouts make the runner, and there's no reason for you to be doing more than 50 mpw. How much rest are you taking between your 3x16? I loved that workout, we'd get 1:15 rest and I always felt strong after. While speed doesn't intuitive seem as important for a two mile, it definitely is a bigger factor than you think. 6x400 at 62 with 5 minutes rest seems like it would be a good workout to try.

Good luck

malmo wrote:

rejoinder wrote:

From my perspective, I'm surprised more people have not singled out the continuous racing (including a quadruple!) I fail to see how running a 3200-1600-800-400 split with 40+ minutes between events represents any kind of beneficial "workout." Rather, I think stunts like this kill your legs, especially given the mileage you've been doing.

Those are exactly the kinds of things high school kids should be doing. There's nothing more fun than competition. If they don't learn it when they are in high school, they'll forever be stuck in a dead end cycle of too-far long runs, too-fast tempo runs, training for "the future," never racing, and never improving -- like 99% of the people who post at Letsrun.

There's only one way to hone your racing saavy -- that's by racing. Do it and love it.

Your "one-size-fits-all" approach is really mind-boggling. It sounds to me as if the op is not exactly loving racing right now. Healthy competition (maybe two races per week) is fine. But if I understand correctly, last week the kid ran 6 races and a tempo run. Just maybe, he'll "hone his racing savy" better when he's not on the 6th race of the week.

You are doing too much mileage. Way too much! Why is there a need to run 80mpw in high school? Is all of your team running that much? There are so many high school teams who have had good success with much lower mileage programs. You shouldn't be running more than 35 mpw at the most. Do more quality rather than quantity and the fatigue will come down as well. Your body can't handle the miles and it's showing. I know that you might be worried about dropping down the mileage especially since you've increased it to a high level. Just think of this as a plateau - and with any plateau, you need to do something radical to break out of it. Good luck.

From your info, I think that you could eventually run in the 4:30s this year. And remember, have fun. Fun is what high school track and field is about. College track and field is more of a business and is not nearly as fun as high school track and field.