Pretty sure I've lost some of my ability to recover

Have you put on weight

Go get your blood tested

Anon wrote:

Go get your blood tested

+1

increase salt

Become addicted to porn. I read somewhere that Nick Willis is a porn addict and look at well he's done. Good luck!

otter wrote:

Anon wrote:

Go get your blood tested

+1

A good idea.

What are OP's workout times like? The concern being racing workouts.

check blood especially when it sounds like you are doing it right with proper rest/nutrition/recoveryruns.

It could just be something like taking an iron tablet to fix you up.

Getting blood checked sounds like good advice - you never know what could turn up there.

I have put on some weight (~6 lbs or heavier than last year), but I was feeling like most of that was muscle, since I'm lifting heavier than I was last year.

I also may be running too hard in workouts, but it's hard to judge how hard to go - the workout will say 3k pace or 5k pace or tempo, and I don't really know how fast that should be since up until last Friday I hadn't raced on the track in about a year (not counting time trials).

It's not that I feel like I'm doing worse, I'm just not seeing any progress in workouts.

First step is a 4 day plan to increase your salt/sodium intake. This will increase your blood plasma level , and improve your circulation.Many runners with injury problems have poor circulation.

I was faster freshman year wrote:

Getting blood checked sounds like good advice - you never know what could turn up there.

I have put on some weight (~6 lbs or heavier than last year), but I was feeling like most of that was muscle, since I'm lifting heavier than I was last year.

I also may be running too hard in workouts, but it's hard to judge how hard to go - the workout will say 3k pace or 5k pace or tempo, and I don't really know how fast that should be since up until last Friday I hadn't raced on the track in about a year (not counting time trials).

It's not that I feel like I'm doing worse, I'm just not seeing any progress in workouts.

Ok, I'd cut your schedule in half for a week and see how you feel.

After that, you need to collect the recent training times and use those to figure out your training paces. You are where you are. Don't worry too much right this minute about whether or not it's fast/slow.

My guess is you are not getting any recovery and probably pushing training really hard. Figure out some pacing. That should dial back the intensity and work with those paces for a while.

Don't give up.

maybe you are eating too much protein and not enough carbs. You can't run off of protein and your body can only absorb so much of it anyway. Check your macro-nutrient ratios.

or the micro-nutrient ratios?

oab wrote:

maybe you are eating too much protein and not enough carbs. You can't run off of protein and your body can only absorb so much of it anyway. Check your macro-nutrient ratios.

This. Where is the starch bro?

As usual, everyone starts talking about iron testing without checking that the guy even gets enough ENERGY in his diet.

notocd wrote:

check blood especially when it sounds like you are doing it right with proper rest/nutrition/recoveryruns.

It could just be something like taking an iron tablet to fix you up.

Low Iron may be the issue and it an easy fix. Get a blood test done and supplement.

Get more sleep and slow down even more on easy days.

Several responses have raised good points, but pop has offered the best advice so far. I'd add the following to it:

It can be challenging, depending on your coach and his/her style, but try to run more by feel than by constantly trying to hit specified times or paces. One of the most counter-productive things you can do is try to force a workout or tempo run to happen when your body is telling you it's just not ready for it that day. So in addition to the above good advice to cut your training load in half for a week (or more might be necessary), cut back on the intensity as well.

Everyone is different, but 7 to 7.5 hours of sleep a night is definitely on the short side. And especially so if you feel like you're not recovering well. Either increase that and/or add a daily nap.

A good initial step which would combine the two issues discussed above would be to cut out your morning runs for awhile. Then if you start feeling and running better you can very gradually begin to re-introduce them into your schedule.

Make sure your easy days are truly easy enough and short enough.

How often do you take a day off?

And most important -- as has already been said -- Don't give up!

You sound kind of like me. Last summer before xc season I decided to do doubles 4-5 days a week. Was running ~60mpw but I wasn't running the doubles as an extra run, it was just what should have been my daily run split in half. Needless to say my xc season was crap and I was very inconsistent.

Doubles should be extra running in addition to your daily run. If I were you I would start working on bringing you're main run up to about an hour and shorten the second run in the mean time to around 20 minutes every other day.

what pace are you doing your easy recovery runs?

Dr Jeromy Vargas wrote:

First step is a 4 day plan to increase your salt/sodium intake. This will increase your blood plasma level , and improve your circulation.Many runners with injury problems have poor circulation.

I've heard of this while whole foods like spinach, kale, fruits, etc are great for overall lean health the endurance athlete always sweating does not make for favorable sodium levels to hold hydration... Himalayan Salt? Iodized? Non iodized? Does it matter?

Useful: ran out of Gatorade for a longer effort had a 20oz bottle with 2tbsp of Raw Cane sugar, 1/4 tsp. Of real salt. Kind of an acquired taste but felt like everything was firing again