Agree with Fleeter and Stolly, just get out there and run as you feel, if I never ran cos I felt tired, I'd never run at all.
Hills and Guinness!
I agree.. tonight I didn't get in from work til gone 8:30 and was in before 9.. I was pissed off.. I did a quick 5 miles a lunch but came home and ran 5.5 miles around llyn padarn with the dog.. the difference in mental freshness was incredible.. I was ragged before hand, afterwards I could sit down and do some work.
I really struggle to understand how people can go 3-4-5 days without a run? Just sanity wise..
I couldn't agree more. I do have days when I don't run but if I ever go more than 2 in a row, I am restless and can feel the effects on my mood. Running sorts my head out, keeps me creative, happy and fit. I know there is a lot of science involved if you want to be an elite runner and training plans are important but I've seen first hand how getting out as often as possible no matter what the weather and how you feel can make huge differences to your fitness and speed and lets face it, why wouldn't you want to spend a part of every day in the fresh air and preferably the hills?
'The birds are the keepers of our secrets'
just cos your training isn't structured and/or you don't know the technical terms, doesn't mean you aren't "training" :wink:
although, like Hes says, at the non-elite end of the spectrum there's a lot to be said for just getting out there most days and racking up the bulk mileage
Scramble the rock face through the glare of morning sun — to run
Anyway, I need to run just to keep the weight down due to all the beer and cake I consume!
When it comes to running tired my opinion is that it's all about how you feel during the run and not before and after. My personal experience of running higher mileage has been of general and persistent tiredness that is alleviated by going for a run. I'm tired, but the run still feels good (at least most of the time). You're going to feel persistently tired running high mileage because, well, that's the point to a certain extent, your body is adapting. There is obviously such a thing as overtraining, but the sign of that in my experience, is not general tiredness but a continuing series of runs that feel bad and a drop of in how well I can run my quality workouts.
Great post..
I use the saying 'you never regret going for a run'.. you always feel better afterwards and get going during it.. which obviously is not always true.. just almost always
However, almost always.. I do find that after weeks of high (for me) mileage, which is consistently low > mid 90's is I do get really tired..a few times I've set off for a run and literally got 100 yards.. it's only happened twice, and always on the second run of the day, when I just knew I was shattered.. but normally that's been combined with life stress..
But I do think you can almost grow to like that tired feeling from high mileage, which is why its addictive.. mentally it just becomes so much part of your life..
I also wonder how much that comes from the ball sports back ground.. playing football as a keeper or rugby, training sore was normal, you never stopped aching until May.. so you are used to differentiating between that mid>end of season ache and an actual injury..
Those ones are funny! Especially trying to explain why you're back so soon!
Interesting (old) thread, I agree with Iain's comment on only properly tapering for a handful of races each year, most 'races' really being hard training sessions.
Also the tongue-in-cheek I tried a rest day and it didn't work!, lol! Early in 2010 I analysed my recovery very closely following races. Then, if I didn't take a day off after a race it really impeded my recovery. And I would usually end up taking a rest day later instead. Recovery's such a strange thing though, different each time.
(FYI: time it took me in 2010 to get back to same form: 4 days+ for a short, 9-10 days for a medium, assuming I stuck to solid training after one day off; quicker recovery might be possible with more days off, but as Iain also mentioned, this will have a negative effect long-term).
Things seem to have changed, especially last year, as I only need days off after the big (important) races. In fact, my day-after training performances tend to be quite good.
ps I took three days off after setting the Flower Scar record last year (wired on coffee) and now they've gone and changed the course on me! Legs were like jelly...