Overtrained or under iron

I am exhausted.

Aside from that, my legs feel dead about 3K into a run. My pace is reasonable, so I know it's not me starting out too fast or too fast a pace. On my 18K long run on Saturday, I was pulling from an empty tank by the last few KM, with the last KM being a very tough slog. Mind you, I shouldn't have left a hill for the end of my long run - that was a really stupid decision. But even then, I had to really push myself to finish that run and not pack it in at 15K. When I woke up on Sunday, I looked pale and sallow, with very dark circles under my eyes. I get wanting a nap after the run, but I feel way more tired than I think I should be. Certainly there's different food/nutrition/hydration tweaks I could make, but this feels different.

My pace on shorter runs is suffering, too. But my heartrate is okay and my body temps are normal, if not a bit lower than normal. I ran 7K at a reasonable pace, and I'm so tired today that I need toothpicks to keep my eyelids open. I'm tired and winded walking up a flight of stairs.

Am I overtrained? I doubt it. I'm doing reasonable mileage and mileage increases, with reasonable paces. I've got lots of rest days. My only specialty workout is hills, and even then I'm only able to do 4 or 5 repeats and I'm so beat afterwards that I want to stop running. In the Fall I was up to 8 or more repeats and felt strong. The thought of adding in speedworkouts makes me want to puke... I can motivate myself to run hills because I enjoy the challenge of the workout.

I'm thinking that maybe I'm anemic. I got my last panel from October and the hemoglobin was on the lower end of the spectrum, but still in the acceptable range for an adult. I've significantly increased my mileage since then. I think I need a doctor's appointment, stat.

What's next?

After this weekend, I'll be done with this training cycle. I've been training for the Fall Colours 10K for the past eight weeks, a Somersault Race that I entered after I had to withdraw from the Winterman 10K back in February.

But now I find myself starting to think about what comes after the race. What do I do with myself until my next serious training cycle starts in March? I know for sure that I'll try for the Half Marathon again. Do I keep running the mileage I'm running now? Do I start with base building - slowly increasing my mileage without running tempos and intervals? I know for sure that I'd like to continue to do hill work on a semi-regular basis, because I can really feel the improvement on the hills after making it a cornerstone of my training over the last 8 weeks. Not to mention that I really love the burn it gives me and the total high/exhaustion I feel after. Yeah, I'm weird.

Anyone have any suggestions? Or where to look for ideas?

I could run the Cookie Run 5K at the beginning of November. It's a fun little race, but I know I'm nowhere close to a PR in the 5K. So if I do run it, it'll just be for fun. I've already decided that I won't be running the Running Room's Resolution Run on December 31st. Part of the reason is that I don't need another jacket (that's the race schwag) and the event always seems to cause husband and I problems when it comes to holiday plans. Last year the road was really snow-covered and it was so tough to run on (greasy) that I'm sure it caused the muscle weakness that contributed to my injury last winter.

A Quest for the Perfect Half Marathon Training Plan

I was in the Running Room the other night buying a new shirt when I happened to glance at their calendar for their clinics. The Half Marathon clinic, with the Ottawa Race Weekend HM as the goal race, starts February 2nd. I'd banked on having until early March to work on my mileage and frequency. February 2nd would really throw a kink in my plans. Heck, it's the day after I get back from Hawaii. So naturally, I started freaking out. I hadn't planned on a 16+ week training plan.

I'd looked at a few HM training plans a few months back but hadn't found any that I liked. Some were too easy, others used minutes instead of miles or kilometres. Most cap the long run at 10 miles and I'm not comfortable racing a distance I've never completed in training.

On the other hand, a lot of plans were too intense with 4 straight days of running a week. I knew I'd end up injured instead of actually racing. Other plans used the walk/run method, which has been hugely successful for some people, but it's not my cup of tea.

I know I could've just altered the plans, jumped in at a convenient place in the plan... but there would've been a lot of adjustments. So, I continued searching for this elusive plan and today I finally found a plan I like! It's Ryan Hall's Half-Marathon Training Plan from RunnersWorld. The short plan weekly mileage is right where I'm going to be when I'm ready to start training. There are 3 rest days a week and no more than two runs in a row. It takes me above the half marathon distance in training, which will relieve a lot of the race day pressure.

It's perfect. Now I can rest easy, as it's a 10-week plan. No February 2nd start. I get a couple more weeks to maintain my mileage before I jump into this plan.

Oh and as for the shirt, I got it on clearance for $30 instead of $90. Score!

The "other" milestone

I've been eagerly anticipating this milestone for awhile.

I've been watching the number of miles run on my Nike+ profile slowly creep towards 1000. It's been moving faster since I started running more often and longer distances.

On Thursday I hit 1000 kilometres on the Nike+ site. I'm a bit of a nerd that way, but it was pretty satisfying to see the number change over and the colour scheme change on the website. Now it's a spiffy blue colour. It'll likely stay that way for awhile as the next level on the site is at 2500km. It took me 2 years to hit 1000 and I expect it'll likely take me another year to run 1500km.

I know that I'm above and beyond 1000 (I have 27kms in lost runs thanks to some bugs in the software) but I'm a sucker for the instant gratification, even if it's a colour change on a website. It's the little things that count...

A week of milestones

This week I'll hit quite a few milestones. I'm pretty excited about them because it really drives home the fact that careful, measured training can pay off.

Tonight I'll mark the first milestone: the beginning of the second phase of my pre-half marathon training. This week I begin running four times a week. It doesn't sound like a big deal, I know. But, it's such a huge step for me. I tried to do this back in September, but it was just too much too soon. Now I'm ready to make the jump. For the next four weeks I will maintain my mileage at 28K a week. I'll run 3K on Mondays, 5K on Tuesdays, 7K on Thursdays and 13K on Saturdays. I just need to remember to slow down. I've been running my long runs too fast, even though my perceived effort is consistent. I always end up feeling like I could've gone faster.. but that's a post for another day.

I'm really looking forward to tonight's run. It's supposed to be warm (I love how warm is a relative term in the winter months!) at -3C, with some snow. I love running in downtown Ottawa at this time of year. The Christmas lights are lit and it feels so cheery and festive. I always come back from my runs in a good mood.

November was a good month

A very good month for me on the running front. I had the new personal best in the 5K at the Cookie Run. I've also been following a training plan that I built for myself.

The goals of the training are to increase my mileage to 20-25 miles per week (that's 32-40km a week for the metric folks) and to run four times a week. Now I can't do this all at once, so Novemeber was just mileage building. This past week I ran 27km, which is a new weekly mileage record. And for the month of November, I ran just over 101km. That number is huge for me! It beats my old mileage high by 20km.

December should deliver a new mileage record, too... providing all goes as planned. I increase by 2km again this week (8/8/13) then a break next week (5/5/10). After that I'm moving to the 4 runs a week phase for 4 weeks, with no mileage increases planned. I might be able to add mileage at the end if I'm feeling okay, but for now the plan is to tackle one phase of training at a time.

I also plan to run the Running Room's Resolution Run on December 31st. Hopefully it'll be warmer than the -25C we had last year!

Training safely

My one friend took up running earlier this year. I was pretty excited because I wanted to share my love of running with my girlfriends.

My friend's now running 10K+ each time she runs. She doesn't follow a plan nor does she follow any of the mileage increase rules for running. I have no idea how fast, how often or hard she's running, but I hope she's running really slow and not over-doing it. Beginners are a very enthusiastic bunch: it's that awesome time where the runner's high comes easily, your training pays huge dividends and the PRs come quick and easy.

What worried me the most was her latest comment: she said needed to run further than her boyfriend so she could beat his distance. His last run was 15K.

It's great to be competitive, but in running, you only compete against yourself. It's a normal new runner mistake. It took me a really long time to realize this and I felt so much better about my running when I came to terms with my competitive streak. That's not to say I don't feel a twinge of competitiveness when a really fast woman blows by me on the path, but I push it down and continue on my run.

It's pretty obvious that she hasn't read anything about running or how to do it safely. Maybe I'm the weird one, since I love to overdose on running books and magazines. I hope I'm just overreacting and that I don't know the full story, but I have to admit that I'm worried she's going to end up hurt.

Maybe I should send her a copy of my favourite running book, Running for Mortals, for Christmas.