Am I getting burned out, or is it just the heat/humidity?

heat attack 1 wrote:

Here's what I do:

-Don't start any run later than 6am if you run in the morning. 5:30am is better.

-Don't start any run in the afternoon until 30 min before sundown when running in the afternoon.

.

Evening runs 60-90 min before sundown are OK.

I'd say your mental weakness poses the greatest hurdle right now.

Heat runners: take in enough:

Salt

Potassium

Magnesium

Calcium

Let me repeat that:

Eat lots of salt to replace the salt you sweat out

You may need to supplement with potassium. Your body will secrete potassium if it is needing to hoard salt. You can buy cheap potassium from bulk supplements.

Magnesium sups aren't usually needed, but you may like them

You should get calcium from milk, OJ, and meat

Eat lots of salt! You are an athlete, not a sedentary person. Different needs!!

Dii divisors wrote:

Heat runners: take in enough:

Salt

Potassium

Magnesium

Calcium

Let me repeat that:

Eat lots of salt to replace the salt you sweat out

You may need to supplement with potassium. Your body will secrete potassium if it is needing to hoard salt. You can buy cheap potassium from bulk supplements.

Magnesium sups aren't usually needed, but you may like them

You should get calcium from milk, OJ, and meat

Eat lots of salt! You are an athlete, not a sedentary person. Different needs!!

You could also eat a lot of fruit and/or drink coconut water.

__________________

I'm definitely getting burned out this summer. I have to remind myself that I don't hate running and that except when its like this (or bad winter), its fun. Since early July we haven't had a dewpoint below 70 and tonight it will be 76 for my run (along with mid 90s temperature).

What really blows is if you want to eat after you run, and you're doubling, that means dinner is at like 9 or later if you want to make something. I'd probably run mid afternoon if it just got down to the 80s.

A heart rate monitor is a big plus in the summer.

I ran for an hour today and really felt the heat on what was supposed to be a hilly, easy run. Every run in Pittsburgh is a hill run.

It is 91F here, today; but, I came out of the workout encouraged because my average heart rate was only 73% of max which tells me that I am progressing well in my fitness, despite the perceived hard effort and brutal conditions.

It's the season. Give yourself a break. Use this time to recover, do yoga and recharge. You will come back stronger. The very fact that you posted tells me that you LOVE to run!

I live in Nashville which is very hot and extremely humid. A couple of different things I do:

-Have a route with multiple bathrooms/water fountains. Running in a park is great for that. I usually loop all of my runs through a park that is 3 miles from my house.

-Run in the morning

-Run in the evening/night: I find the sun to be more tolerable in the evening and also finding shade is easier to come by

-take a multivitamin and drink lots of gatorade, like previous posters have said salt is critical

-Be sure to take a down week every now and then when you are feeling burnt out

Best of luck, the worst of it is almost over.

Don't worry about pace, run off effort. I used to take breaks every 2-4 miles in the shade to cool off. Just getting out there putting time on your legs is great. Do long runs early as balls in the morning.

Hall monitor wrote:

A heart rate monitor is a big plus in the summer.

I ran for an hour today and really felt the heat on what was supposed to be a hilly, easy run. Every run in Pittsburgh is a hill run.

It is 91F here, today; but, I came out of the workout encouraged because my average heart rate was only 73% of max which tells me that I am progressing well in my fitness, despite the perceived hard effort and brutal conditions.

That tells me you are bad at determining your effort

little kids are running nationals in CA and TX this week and next week and you babies are complaining? It is scorching weather over there.

Shame on you! Shut up and run!

In Marty Liquori's "Guide for the Elite Distance Runner" I remember him talking about how they were having a brutal summer training in Florida. Mentions how 10 miles in 63 or 65 minutes were very difficult. Went over to Europe and started banging out PRs despite thinking he was not in that good of shape due to paces lacking.

In the overall picture it truly is about the effort. Neuromuscular training of race pace to a certain extent, yes, but the effort is what matters.

pathetic pansies wrote:

little kids are running nationals in CA and TX this week and next week and you babies are complaining? It is scorching weather over there.

Shame on you! Shut up and run!

Thanks. Seriously.

No worries- Just a little tough love!

rowberringer wrote:

Hall monitor wrote:

A heart rate monitor is a big plus in the summer.

I ran for an hour today and really felt the heat on what was supposed to be a hilly, easy run. Every run in Pittsburgh is a hill run.

It is 91F here, today; but, I came out of the workout encouraged because my average heart rate was only 73% of max which tells me that I am progressing well in my fitness, despite the perceived hard effort and brutal conditions.

That tells me you are bad at determining your effort

That tells me you are not good at processing information.

Kathryn wrote:

It's the season. Give yourself a break. Use this time to recover, do yoga and recharge. You will come back stronger. The very fact that you posted tells me that you LOVE to run!

Thanks, Kathryn. Yes, I love to run. My wife says I am very faithful to it.

Lots of good comments here. I agree that a lot of the bad stuff is behind us. Once we enter August, my spirits are lifted.

Glad I have some good news to report. I went out for a hilly 10 this morning with my long run partner. It was humid, but very cloudy. We got out a bit earlier, and the run went well--no, very well in comparison to other recent runs. Did 7:26 pace overall, and finished feeling pretty good in a 6:53 last mile. This is just what I needed--especially mentally.

At this point you need to chose between doing VO2max intervals, LT runs, and a Long Run that is over a quarter of your weekly mileage. If you can't dip below 7:30 pace on recovery runs, fine; don't. Keep progressing your weekly mileage like you have been (10-12% each week). But it looks like you are either straining to complete three different mesocycles all at once (Base mileage, Threshold Work, Sharpening). I understand reaching a point in training where you can maintain these adaptations as they are achieved, but they come in a pretty well agreed upon order. For a November marathon, I would say you are pretty far from that point in your macrocycle.

Typically raising your long run comes with achieving base miles. Why not simply progress your weekly mileage as you have been, and focus on having a quality long run? Once you have achieved mileage around 75mpw (fitting for a 15 mile long run) then introduce threshold work. 59 to 75 should take roughly three weeks (the typical minimum to notice a training adaptation) and I imagine those three weeks without intervals and tempo work should leave you fresh to develop a quality Long Run. This isn't to say you're finished building mileage past 75mpw, and I'm not saying you couldn't add some strides to the end of a run. But give your fitness the chance to adapt to one major stress at a time.

Imagine what it could be like to find yourself three weeks from now comfortably running 75mpw, building a quality Long Run, and then getting the green light to do threshold work. Without knowing how you have progressed until now and what you hope to accomplish in November, I would say you are speeding through a bunch of yellows.

FrozenNorth wrote:

Man, I needed this thread. My running has sucked the last couple weeks - runs in my "recovery run" pace range with almost "marathon pace" heart rate - and I've been driving myself crazy worrying about it. I'll try to chill and wait for it to cool TF down a bit.

Agreed, it is nice to hear about other's struggles with the heat. Over the winter I was eager to jump out of bed at 4am and crank for hours on the trails. Now I find myself hitting snooze until after 5, dreading the depleted feeling I feel all day after a long run in the morning.

Interesting comments here, Traffic Light. I like your ideas. Some specifics...I am in a 24-week marathon phase, and I believe I am currently in week 10 (race date is 11/6). For weekly mileage, we are planning to top out in the 70s, as I did last year. Midway through and toward the end, we had some down weeks, and mostly we did alternating weeks of 63 and 70. I believe there were one or two true down weeks at 56.

The harsher weather has spooked me this year. I am an "old guy" who picked up running in his 40s. I am 47 now, and I ran my first marathon last year, running 3:02 and qualifying for NYC. My coach did not want to push me too much more this year, and so the plan is very similar to last year's.

I like your point about building easy miles for the next three weeks so as to get to 75 mpw feeling fresh. The weather will be somewhat improved by then, too. I also have to work on staying calm, and not worrying so much. For me, NYC is huge, and I am anxious to perform well. I would like a sub-3:00. Sub-3:00 would be a nice accomplishment. What do you think?

On the VO2max issue - I do a 6 week block of VO2max work from 18 weeks out to 12 weeks out from my marathon. I think the overall improvement in fitness helps make the huge volume of tempo work that I do for the last 12 weeks more manageable and makes the pace feel more tolerable (and the pace drops because I am fitter).

I would also say that doing some of your medium-long runs - some 8 or 10 milers - in the peak heat could actually be helpful. It might result in some adaptation so that when you do your long runs or quality sessions in slightly lesser heat, you will be a little better off.