Taper or Passover or Temperature or... (Read 438 times)

So yesterday was my first official run of my taper for my half marathon in 2 weeks. I felt really slow, gross, sluggish, tired. I'm accustomed to feeling that way during a taper, but never on the first day. I felt so blah that I cut a mile off my scheduled run and chalked my sluggishness up to running later at night than usual. Today, I ran a 3 mile fartlek. I was expecting it to be a great run, I was really excited about the weather (in the 70s and partly cloudy!), and because it's finals period, I got to run in the afternoon. I start my warm up and I feel really heavy, like I'm dragging. Then I started my run. I went at an easy pace until I would push myself, and while I usually like to push myself for about 30 seconds at a time, today I could barely hang onto the speed for 15. It wasn't that I was running too fast, it was as if my brain kept saying "keep going fast," and my legs didn't pay any attention. Even worse, on my last mile, even when I was going easy, I felt like I had seriously hit the wall at the 23rd mile in a marathon. I don't know how my legs kept going, it was like I willed them with my mind. This should NOT happen when I run 3 miles. The sluggishness I felt today was similar to what I felt yesterday, so I'm trying to figure out what's wrong and would love some input. I narrowed it down to three potential culprits. 1. It's just how you feel during the taper I don't think so because this is just my second day of the taper, but it's a possibility. 2. Passover Today is the 3rd day of Passover. I haven't had anything non-Kosher for Passover since noon on Saturday. I keep it pretty strict -- so I haven't had corn, soy, beans, rice, or non-Matzah grain (or their derivatives) since then. Is it just that I need some carbs? Should I eat a baked potato before my next run? 3. Temperature This is what I hope it's not most of all. Starting this week, it has been 20-40 degrees warmer than it has been for nearly all of my recent training. Even last night, it was about 20 degrees warmer than what I am used to running in during the day. Do I just need to get used to the new temperature? If this is it, any advice on how to speed up this process before my half? Thanks!

I'm glad that running more is a possible solution -- and especially that it's probably not completely the carb-cutting. Thanks.