Fighting through Fatigue

I'm now on week 11 of 18 in my schedule, more than halfway through official training for the marathon.  At this point, the normal weekday runs are 5 miles, 8 miles, then another 5 miles, and the longest weekend run so far has been 17 miles, so 35+ miles total.  At this point, I have had to scale back quite a bit on my cross training (usually only once or twice a week), because I have to fit in all the running days as well as try to rest for one day a week.  A couple of weeks ago, when the weekly mileage started to climb above 30, I started feeling very fatigued, especially when I was doing high-intensity workouts on my "off" (that is, non-running) days.  In the past year, I have really been used to running every other day and alternating with cross training, but not running four to five times a week, especially at such high mileages on weekdays.  I wasn't sure if my nutrition or sleeping patterns were more of the issue, but I was starting to get worried about being that tired for the rest of my training. 

One thing that I now know is really important, and which Flash has been hounding me about for many months, is to make sure that you actually give yourself one full rest day a week.  I could get away with not doing that when I wasn't doing the marathon training schedule or even when I was training for the half marathons in the spring. But now it's really crucial to rest and recover, even though I sometimes hate to do it (I feel weird on days when I don't work out). There are several reasons for this: first of all, if you never get enough rest, your muscles won't have time to recover and rebuild (duh).  I usually try to take my day off right before the long run of the week so that I feel pretty rested and not sore on my really long runs. 

Second of all, mental fatigue can be a huge problem, and forcing yourself to take a day off can alleviate some of that.  I have virtually been training non-stop for races (starting with shorter ones and building up to this point) for the past year straight.  I really love to exercise and train, but even the best runners I know, like Flash, sometimes start getting mentally fatigued after so many weeks of intense training.  I am pretty confident most of the time, but even I sometimes have doubts about whether I am capable of all of this.  I have to tell you, there have been several times in the past few weeks when I have had to go to sleep really early on a Friday night (my social life is sometimes nil these days) and just sat there thinking, I have to get up at 5 AM and run for three hours tomorrow morning. Why did I think this was a good idea? What did I get myself into?

But I can tell you, when I have gotten going on those long runs- the 14, 15, 17, etc. milers with Flash and our other running buddy- something has started happening.  It's like I'm tapping into the real endurance runner within me, a whole new level that I didn't even know I had.  I start feeling stronger and stronger as we run, and I hit a really great stride at about mile 8-10 which only builds as we go. It's an incredible feeling. Granted, we are not running at a really fast pace, but that's what you are supposed to do for these long training runs- go about a minute and a half slower per mile than your race pace.  Regardless, in the past week or two I have started feeling like I'm reaching the best running fitness level I have ever been in.  Last week, I was supposed to run 8 miles after work on Wednesday, and I felt so good that I ran 10 miles in my fastest training time ever.  Then only a few days later, I ran 17 miles and didn't even feel that fatigued afterward- I ran errands and helped a friend move for the rest of the day.  I'm discovering that my body is very resilient and can rise to higher challenges than I thought possible. Of course, it helps that I try to treat it really well- as I have mentioned before, I am still not drinking at all, I don't have refined sugars, and I eat lots of wholesome foods.

One more thing that I have noticed, though, is that nowadays I can get pretty hungry ALL day, because I'm just burning so many calories.  In the past five days, for example, I ran 17 on Saturday, swam for 45 minutes on Sunday, ran 6 miles Monday, ran 8 miles really fast on Tuesday, then ran another 8 yesterday.  I was ravenous all day afterward. I'm attempting to eat every few hours so that I don't get TOO hungry and so that my body has enough fuel, and as usual try to get enough protein and good fats.  One thing I recently discovered (curtesy of a friend) is a cool fueling/recovery drink: all natural peanut butter, almond milk, and banana smoothies!!

The only thing I'm worried about now is peaking too early... since the race is still a month and a half away.  Even though I feel really strong now, I guess I can just get better from here! Next up: 20 mile race on September 17.