Sudden slowness

It sounds like you're iron deficient to me. Definitely get a blood test and check your iron, ferritin, as well as CBC. Also, get your doctor to give you a copy of the test. What is considered normal for the general population may not be normal for runners. Generally speaking, males should have a ferritin level of at least 20 and an iron level of at least 75. If it does turn out you have low iron/ferritin then start taking an iron supplement. Your doc can tell you about this, but I would reccomend Ferrex 150. Also, to enhance absorption of the iron, it should be taken with vitamin c and should be avoided with taking calcium. This is all of course if youre actually iron deficient; you will first want the blood test. Hope you stay motivated and discover the issue!

Thanks. I went to the doctor today and had my blood drawn, so I'll know in 2 days. However, she seems pretty skeptical and doesn't seem to think that a drop off from easy pace being 7 min/mile to 8 min/mile is a big deal. We'll see.

Hope you feel better. Not sure where you live, but the heat can definitely affect your times, although not by a full minute per mile. The two weeks off probably affected you as well. Maybe the race you ran today was not certified and not measured correctly. You should try another race in another month and hopefully you will do a lot better. Make sure you are eating well and sleeping enough.

or last season took more out of you than you thought and you need a few more weeks of easy running in order to be properly recovered before you start pushing it again

You'll snap out of it when your body is ready

You seem to be in a funk. Like the other posters said you might need more time.

For me it's just getting in workouts I like to do. One tempo trail run and then 2 days later fast 200s on a nice track with plenty of recovery. That will cure any type funk.

In May I took a road trip for one week. Ran every day but ate crap with poor quality workouts. Got back and it took two weeks to get back into the system.

Right before I left was my first 5K for this season and ran 17:15, Felt easy and I won.

3 weeks after that ran 17:48 on easier couse and felt sluggish and it about killed me.

Finally this last weekend ran 16:41 . I lost about 4 weeks from that trip.

seems like iron wrote:

It sounds like you're iron deficient to me. Definitely get a blood test and check your iron, ferritin, as well as CBC. Also, get your doctor to give you a copy of the test. What is considered normal for the general population may not be normal for runners. Generally speaking, males should have a ferritin level of at least 20 and an iron level of at least 75. If it does turn out you have low iron/ferritin then start taking an iron supplement. Your doc can tell you about this, but I would reccomend Ferrex 150. Also, to enhance absorption of the iron, it should be taken with vitamin c and should be avoided with taking calcium. This is all of course if youre actually iron deficient; you will first want the blood test. Hope you stay motivated and discover the issue!

Ya, my iron levels are normal at 101 ug/dL. However, my ferritin is low at 11.8 ng/dL, and my TIBC is high at 459 ug/dL. I'm going to start taking iron supplements, and hopefully my slightly low ferritin level is responsible for my difficulty running. Thank you for the accurate diagnosis.

You're welcome. I've dealt with low ferritin myself- it can be a real pain. I usually take my supplements right before I go to bed so nothing interferes with its absorption. Good luck with your training and stay motivated!

Also, I ran basically that exact same time for the 1500 (4:17) and since I've been struggling with low ferritin I'm just curious of what your other pr's are and kinda compare myself to someone in a similar situation. Mine are 1:59. 4:17, 28:20. It definitely feels like I'm more comfortable in the 800 than the 8k. Anyways, just wondering how low ferritin might come into play in longer races.

seems like iron wrote:

Also, I ran basically that exact same time for the 1500 (4:17) and since I've been struggling with low ferritin I'm just curious of what your other pr's are and kinda compare myself to someone in a similar situation. Mine are 1:59. 4:17, 28:20. It definitely feels like I'm more comfortable in the 800 than the 8k. Anyways, just wondering how low ferritin might come into play in longer races.

I ran 2:04.1 for the 800 but it was my first season running the 800 so I think I could have maybe gone faster if I knew how to run it better. I also ran an embarrassing 32 for the 8k. It was pretty disgraceful. I wonder my your 8k, 800 is so much better than mine yet my 1500 is faster, seems like you can go faster there. Anyway how significantly did the low iron affect you? Can I expect the slowness of my runs to be fully explained by my iron levels?

Give it about 6 weeks and you will start to feel a lot better, even after 4 weeks you should start to feel a difference. My ferritin was comparable to yours and after two weeks of supplementation I noticed that I had a little bit more energy, though I wouldn't say my running greatly improved. I struggled with it last summer and this spring. In march I felt awful and ran an 800 in 2:22, about 6 weeks later I was down to 1:59. Not saying that taking an iron supplement will turn you into a Kenyan, but it can make a huge differemce. Don't let it affect your mental attitude towards running. It will take weeks for you to get back to where you were, but you should still be able to have a great season and if you put in the work and build a good summer base it's not unreasonable for you to drop 4-5 minutes in your 8k time. I don't know what kind of training you did for cross country, but it seems to me that a 2:04 and a 4:16 are a whole lot better than a 32- perhaps ferritin plagued you last fall as well. For me, the main thing was just to keep motivated. Keep on training, but run in accordance to current fitness, not your normal self. So if you have to run slower than you want to make the run feel good, do it.

So I've been taking supplements for about 2 weeks and feel a tiny bit better but not really that much better. I was about to get really discouraged as it sucks to suck so much all the time, but luckily I reread your post. Its hard to keep a long term view but I guess that's what's required. It feels awful to not be able to keep up with my friend at 7 minute pace on his warmups, and when I try I basically feel like I'm tempoing it. Ah well.

Wow. I can't believe that the first time I get on letsrun for a few days I see this thread again- crazy. Anyways, what kind of supplement are you taking? If I remember correctly, I think I reccomended Ferrex 150. I don't know if you chose to take this kind or not, but I found a lot of the supplements dont seem to possess enough iron to really be effective in increasing my levels within a reasonable time span. That brand delivers a higher dosage of iron and I haven't experienced any negative side effects either.

I would try taking it at night that way the iron's absorption will not be as likely to be inhibited by calcium, caffeine, etc. Also, I find that I feel better when eating a decent amount of red meat. Maybe try incorporating more of that into your diet. It definitely takes a while to really kick in, but know that the training you're doing know won't be lost- you will be reaping the benefits later on.

Is it hot where you are running? Also, maybe 7 min pace is too fast right now for you, especially for a warm up. My PR is 16 flat and I used to run 7 min pace easily, but right now I'm closer to 18 flat shape and I know 7 min pace isn't so easy yet. Maybe give it more time?

Are you gonna have a baby?

lol I am male and will not be having a baby... that I'm aware of.

seems like iron wrote:

Wow. I can't believe that the first time I get on letsrun for a few days I see this thread again- crazy. Anyways, what kind of supplement are you taking? If I remember correctly, I think I reccomended Ferrex 150. I don't know if you chose to take this kind or not, but I found a lot of the supplements dont seem to possess enough iron to really be effective in increasing my levels within a reasonable time span. That brand delivers a higher dosage of iron and I haven't experienced any negative side effects either.

My mom got them so I had no say in the matter. The one I'm taking right now is liquid iron, floradix. However, for the rest of the year my mom got solgar which are just normal 25mg pills. Any insight on those?

On a separate note this week, my 3rd week on supplements, has been far worse than the second week. I don't know how this is possible or what it means but its incredibly discouraging. I ran 40 miles last week at an average pace of 7:45. So far this week none of my runs have been below 8 minute pace. And today the first 3 mile loop of my run was at 9 minute pace. When I realized this I tried to pick it up for the second 3 mile loop and managed to drop down to 8:23 pace. I'm not sure if this means its mostly psychological or just that you can always go faster on runs if your intent on pushing it.

Yeah I believe I've heard that the liquid iron is supposed to be a little more easy to absorb, but if youre not having any good luck with that I would try a different supplement. Also, floradix is relatively low dosage I think. Are you just taking the serving size? I have never heard of those iron pills before, but I ferrous sulfate is supposed to be one of the most easily absorbed kind of iron. If you can, try to get any brand of supplements that are ferrous sulfate. If you can't, I would reccomend trying the solgar pills. However, 25mg is a relatively low dosage iron supplement so you can take more than one at a time. I would reccomend taking two pills once a day. (I've taken up to 325mg pills daily and havent had any negative side effects so dont be afraid to up your dosage just a little.) In regard to your training- obviously the heat/humidity will slow you down a decent amount. If you can, try to run at least a couple of times a week on some softer surfaces since you kill red blood cells through footstrike hemolysis and this can be a contributing factor to iron deficiency. Running on softer surfaces can help you a little there (though your times of course wont be faster running on those surfaces).When I discovered I had low ferritin last summer it did take a while for me to get back to normal. Perhaps, on some of your longer runs, try breaking it up into two runs. Running two shorter distance runs, instead of one longer distance run, will help you out. Also, I don't eat the best so that can play a big part too. The biggest thing is to make sure youre getting enough calories. Eat all the beef you can get your hands on- it contains heme iron which is absorbed at a much higher rate than non-heme iron (non-heme is found in the supplements and plants, only meat contains heme iron). If after a couple of months you don't start to feel better you should probably go back to your doctor and see whats up.

I went back to my doctor again today to check up on how my iron levels are doing. However, I am still not feeling that much better despite now taking 2 iron pills a day, at night with orange juice. My tempo runs for the last 2 weeks have been at 7:10 pace, which is incredibly slow. I can't imagine it would take this long to get my iron back to normal. I can only imagine that it has now become a psychological problem since I've been running so slowly for so long, that I now think my old pace is too fast for me.

Is 40 mpw an increase? If I'm ramping up mileage for a fall marathon during a hot summer, as this one has been, it can leave me feeling drained and can easily add a minute to my paces until September cooler weather arrives. A few hard efforts in September though leads to a bounce back in October when all those miserably slow miles finally pay dividends.

Don't be discouraged. Continue working with your doctor, but give it a few more months, and I'm sure those fast days will be back.