I've been training for my first 1/2 marathon (8th June, St Albans) and I've just really hit the wall. A couple of weeks ago I was great, felt fast and could run for miles. Now as I've been tapering back to fewer runs that are not quite as long, I just feel terrible. My whole body is heavy and even had to stop and walk for a bit last night. I'm giving myself quite a hard time and just wonder if this is normal? I've trained up from running three times a week for about 45mins to five times a week for various lengths of time, the longest being 2 hours. I really slow so covering the distance has been taking a while.
Any comments on how to overcome the lead legs symptoms currently being experience would be great!
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So glad I read this thread! I've been building up to a 10K (which regretfully I had to miss). From an average of about 11 miles a week I gradually built up to 20, with my longest run being about 1 hour 15 minutes (9 miles).
Last week I tapered a bit in preparation for the race, which was on Monday (as I say, for medical reasons I was unable to take part). This week I just can't seem to get back to where I was before the tapering. I'm running like a slug. I'm wading through treacle. Can't understand this as I'd have thought that the reduction in mileage last week would have meant I'd be feeling refreshed this week, but I'm not!
Perhaps we've both being overdoing it a bit?
How did you, or anyone else, determine their running 'base' after an event? What I mean is after training up for an event surely one doesn't stay running at the speeds/distances of the peak weeks of training! However, I have improved quite a bit (yay!) and don't want to go back to my 3 X 45minutes.
9 miles is my furthest run to date, and I probably ran it under less than ideal circumstances. I was tired (bed at 3:30 am the night before), hung over and had eaten burger and chips for lunch, and drunk probably no more than half a litre of water that day. Managed the run OK - probably too fats, in fact - but have been suffering a little from shin pain ever since.
Moral of the story: listen to my body!
Thanks also for your advice about the what next question. I am keen on another half in July (Burnham Beeches) but I'll have to see how I'm doing. I had vaguely thought about working on my speed a bit so that next time when I am training it doesn't take me so long to cover all the miles the training schedule dictates. I'm going to loose some weight too as I think it might help (only about 6kg).
I've been running for about 5 years so I definitely feel like I'm in for good now. The 1/2 marathon is my first event though, which in hind sight was a bit stupid and goes against all the advice I've read since registering. I just did the same old thing, year after year, but in different locations and really felt I needed something decently hard to jolt me into getting a bit better. I do intend to make my progress a bit slower from now on though.
Really helpful advice today, thanks.
The heat, as we are not accustomed to it, more or less pounces on everybody. No way round it, just have to accept it.
There's usually a reason for feeling tired, and it usually doesn't get better for pressing on and disregarding the evidence.
Read the training thread - you'll see lots of people are sort of taking it easy, one way or another.
Good luck.
Bodes well for the races I have planned and has also made me more relaxed about taking the odd few days off every now and then. Doesn't necessarily mean you lose fitness.