I am about halfway through my 18 week training plan for marathon #2 and I am exhausted. This time around I am not battling any major injury issues, which is nice, but I feel like I can't get enough sleep. Getting motivated to get out the door is rough some days--once I'm out there I feel good, but my energy levels the rest of the time are pretty shot. I wonder if part of it is due to changing weather, allergies, and time change. Perhaps 8 hours of sleep/night is just not enough at this stage in training. I don't recall feeling this sleepy during training for #1, but knee issues also forced me to scale back on mileage, so I think my peak mileage was only about 43 or so miles last Fall. I am already up to over 41 for this training cycle. Zzzzz.....

How's your food? You eating enough to support that amount of running?

How's your food? You eating enough to support that amount of running?

Hahahahahaha...you're very funny. I only wish I could keep from eating enough (and then some) to support my mileage.

Take a nap if you can. I find when I hit a new mileage level for several weeks the fatigue builds. Sleep is needed. Then I adjust. It doesnt mean you will always need more sleep at 40 mpw, but that this go round you may. The kind of exhausted I get when I am increasing my training level often is served well with a 10 minute cat nap. I also have had good luck when I am exhausted in the middle of a program to look at the timing of my food. Not the overall quantity, but am I eating the right stuff at the right time. Same with watching the caffeine. Scaling back on the caffeine at certain times has given me more overall energy - probably from higher quality sleep. But any time I am pushing myself my sleep needs increase. Just this week I think I napped 2 or 3 times. One real nap, 2 10 minute naps. And run earlier...as early as you can. I know you usually go when Dane is in school, so try to go as soon as he goes instead of putting it off. Matching your running to natural energy cycles in the day can help ALOT with overall energy and fatigue. I feel sleepy all morning if I havent run yet.

Take a nap if you can. I find when I hit a new mileage level for several weeks the fatigue builds. Sleep is needed. Then I adjust. It doesnt mean you will always need more sleep at 40 mpw, but that this go round you may. The kind of exhausted I get when I am increasing my training level often is served well with a 10 minute cat nap. I also have had good luck when I am exhausted in the middle of a program to look at the timing of my food. Not the overall quantity, but am I eating the right stuff at the right time. Same with watching the caffeine. Scaling back on the caffeine at certain times has given me more overall energy - probably from higher quality sleep. But any time I am pushing myself my sleep needs increase. Just this week I think I napped 2 or 3 times. One real nap, 2 10 minute naps. And run earlier...as early as you can. I know you usually go when Dane is in school, so try to go as soon as he goes instead of putting it off. Matching your running to natural energy cycles in the day can help ALOT with overall energy and fatigue. I feel sleepy all morning if I havent run yet.

Man, I wish I were a napper. I had a hard time getting myself to nap even when Dane was an infant. If it's not dark I can't shut-off...and I often find that I feel worse after a nap--I think it depends upon the length. The caffeine thing is something I've been working on. I have cut all caffeinated sodas out, so just coffee in the AM. I think running earlier is a good plan, too. I'm just waiting for it to warm up, most days. We had a couple of days that were "warm," but yesterday there were snowflakes in the air when I ran. Now that it's officially Spring I hope that Mother Nature gets a clue. I hate having to bundle up any more than is necessary. Usually it's warmest around 1 or 2, so that's when I've been running out of sheer wussiness. Another thing that I'm wondering about...3-5 nights/week I've been taking Ambien to knock myself out--especially since the time change. I'm starting to think Ambien is like alcohol--knocks me out, but doesn't allow me to have truly restful sleep. Before the time change I wasn't having such a hard time falling asleep at night, but in the past 2 weeks I've gotten that annoying second wind at bedtime. Hopefully my internal clock has reset itself by next week. I really need a few nights of sleeping like the dead.

I definitely think the salt thing is a potential key. I started having those sort of "pre-cramping" spasms during my long runs last Summer leading up to the marathon...not painful, but my calves started feeling like they were locking-up...a very weird sensation. This time around I am taking regular Gatorade and popping open some extra Endurolytes capsules. If I can get my hands on a tub of Gatorade Endurance formula I'm probably going to switch to that, too. They had that at Milwaukee and I was afraid to use it during the first half of the race, since I hadn't used it in training (I had that Gatorade Tiger stuff in my bottle). Next time I will likely avoid plain water except to wash down gels, too. Not sure what they will have at Bayshore...no reference to sports drink on their site, but I'll plan to carry my own, just in case. Within 45 minutes of starting to drink the Gatorade Endurance at Milwaukee the cramps let up and I was able to carefully run the last couple of miles of the race, but I felt pretty defeated at that point. Not even as tired as I had expected to be, just frustrated. I am prone to occasional nighttime charley horse cramping, so maybe I do have some standing electrolytes issues, too. Plus I wasn't able to have my usual breakfast on race day, since my room had no microwave or fridge, so I had a half banana and a Clif bar. I usually am a bacon and eggs gal on race day. I like my salt. At Bayshore I'll probably have some of those little microwaveable biscuit sandwich dealies. I like those things and they always sit well in my stomach, plus are loaded with sodium. The iron thing is interesting. I was anemic when I was younger, but it was mostly due to very heavy periods from endometriosis. Several years ago I had thermal ablation surgery, so nowadays my periods are very light. Might not be a bad idea to have my hematocrit checked, though. I eat a fair amount of red meat and romaine lettuce, so I'm guessing the amount of iron in my diet is good. As for the undertraining thing the first time around--definitely. I had some knee crap develop 2-3 weeks before starting marathon training (mostly due to not taking it easy enough in the week or two immediately after a 25k, I think, as well as needing a bit more medial support in my shoe). I believe my peak week was only 43 miles or so--very light. I ended up taking an entire week off about a third of the way through and scaling back a lot of weeks (then throwing a pair of Superfeet insoles in my shoes in a last ditch effort to find something to placate the knee...thankfully it worked). This time around I should be peaking at 50. If that goes well, then next time around I will follow the same plan, but add an extra easy 4-5 miler each week.

Short naps refresh me, long naps I want to just stay in bed all day. I run like shit on Ambien. I used to think Ambien didnt hang me over, but I know now it does. I only take Ambien once a week max to avoid dependency and I will save it for a night that I dont plan on running the next day. It can make for a brutal few days, but just knowing "I'll sleep Thursday night" is enough to power through. I am draggy tired the next day after Ambien. I use it to reset things so that I can hopefully sleep at the right time the following night. B vitamins as well as iron. I take EmergenC on the days I run, mostly because of the B vitamins in a form that doesnt upset my tummy. That helps me a lot with energy.

Oh god Benedryl? for me benedryl (25mg) gives me a 12-15 hour hangover. And no, it doesnt help me sleep. My MIL who used to have to take 50 mg /day every day would drink 3-4 pots of coffee a day. Magnesium is good for night cramps. It's all about balancing out the minerals