My current approach of trying to get back to race fitness is just not working.
In principal the idea of slowly and steadily increasing the workload seemed simple and with a little patience on my part the correct way to go. However, even the modest increases in workload I have managed over the last 5 weeks have not resulted in any improvements.
In fact, things are getting worse. It seems weird that having only increased my total weekly mileage to 48 miles over the 5 weeks that I may be suffering from 'overtraining'. But, the symptoms are there:
- Results reversal, although I have not been racing I am actually getting slower with every run and can't match any times for the routes I use, from 4 weeks ago, never mind the times I should be able to do when fit.
- General Fatigue, yes I normally feel tired after training but not to this extent. It seems to take an age to recover from the easiest of runs plus feeling run down and tired all of the time.
- Injuries, past problems with my hamstrings etc. seem to be resurfacing.
Obviously I don't want to stop training but I am going to have to re-structure what I am doing by allowing longer recovery periods between sessions, reducing the intensity of the session or by making the higher intensity sessions shorter ie reduce the overall mileage.
So it's back to the drawing board. Things are looking tight for the Blaydon Race so I may have to sacrifice going for a good run for just run around, but if it means a greater overall improvement a little later so be it.
In principal the idea of slowly and steadily increasing the workload seemed simple and with a little patience on my part the correct way to go. However, even the modest increases in workload I have managed over the last 5 weeks have not resulted in any improvements.
In fact, things are getting worse. It seems weird that having only increased my total weekly mileage to 48 miles over the 5 weeks that I may be suffering from 'overtraining'. But, the symptoms are there:
- Results reversal, although I have not been racing I am actually getting slower with every run and can't match any times for the routes I use, from 4 weeks ago, never mind the times I should be able to do when fit.
- General Fatigue, yes I normally feel tired after training but not to this extent. It seems to take an age to recover from the easiest of runs plus feeling run down and tired all of the time.
- Injuries, past problems with my hamstrings etc. seem to be resurfacing.
Obviously I don't want to stop training but I am going to have to re-structure what I am doing by allowing longer recovery periods between sessions, reducing the intensity of the session or by making the higher intensity sessions shorter ie reduce the overall mileage.
So it's back to the drawing board. Things are looking tight for the Blaydon Race so I may have to sacrifice going for a good run for just run around, but if it means a greater overall improvement a little later so be it.
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