Forums >Running 101>Muscles tire before losing steam
Not dead. Yet.
On my long runs, I find that toward the end I usually have to slow down due to muscle fatigue rather than aerobic endurance. Is this normal? What kind of training can I do to specifically help with this? Leg workouts in the gym? Run hills? More miles?
How can we know our limits if we don't test them?
an amazing likeness
Slow down and log the miles. You're pushing your endurance, which is the reason for you doing those runs.
Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.
Joggaholic
My long runs are always limited by how tire my legs are. I just run more.
A Saucy Wench
that's kind of the point of the long run.
If you are slowing a little and mostly on new mileage (i.e. if this is your first time moving from 10-12 and the last 2 are a struggle) then don't worry about it. That's normal
If you are slowing a LOT and its happening repeatedly at the end of even mileage you should be used to, try forcing yourself to go out a little slower for the first 2 miles of the long run and then relax in to your pace.
Also, you are getting to the point where your long run is pretty long relative to your overall weekly miles. Try upping the midweek stuff more before boosting the long run again. (and looking at your log that might mean just throwing in an extra shorter run here and there)
I have become Death, the destroyer of electronic gadgets
"When I got too tired to run anymore I just pretended I wasnt tired and kept running anyway" - dd, age 7
2/3rds training
Doesn't sound unusual at all. If you really want to tax your aerobic endurance, cycling/mountain biking would be the way to go. When you really reach the end of your endurance rope on a bike, you'll stop, get off, and barely be able to stand any more. But since you have to carry your body weight while running your legs will give up first.
My not-entirely-running-related 'Gram
On my long runs, I find that toward the end I usually have to slow down due to muscle fatigue rather than aerobic endurance.
Your muscle fatigue is due to lack of aerobic endurance. As everyone else said: run more.
Runners run
Okay. Thanks. It is usually happening on the new mileage and it's not alot, it just gets significantly harder to move my legs by the end of the run while I don't really feel all that out of breath. I thought maybe I was building things unevenly.
I'll be pushing towards higher mileage after a few weeks of races. I'll try to add a mid-week medium distance run, because I have heard you guys say it helps make the long run easier, plus upping the mileage of the other easys. Then start going longer again.
w00t! Thanks!
Right on Hereford...
If you finish a run slower than you started, it's a problem. You should make it a goal to negative split every race, every interval session, every tempo run, every long run, every easy run, every recovery run.
Every run a negative split.
If you finish a run slower than you started, it's a problem. You should make it a goal to negative split every race, every interval session, every tempo run, every long run, every easy run, every recovery run. Every run a negative split.
Um, no.
be curious; not judgmental
Why not?
I didn't go into details in my last post, but here is what I meant.
- Negative splits are the optimal way to race, and by optimal I mean fastest.
- To have a chance at negative splitting a race, you have to practice it in training.
- To practice negative splits, avoid starting too fast. For most runs, this means starting quite slow.
- If you can't finish a run (any run) at least slightly faster than you started, then you went out too fast.
- A large negative split is not needed; even a small differential is good.
Have you considered walk breaks during your longer runs? Try walking for a minute every mile for the first five miles or so. It won't cost you a ton of time but will save your legs a little extra juice at the end.
I am thinking MattM may be suggesting not racing/pushing all of the easy training runs.
If you find yourself pushing at the end of your easy and recovery runs just to get a negative split, then you did it wrong.
I would say you are hitting your lactate threshold. Doing the LSDs helps push that threshold further away. So slow down and even walk if you have too. The more you run, and the more you perform those LSDs the further you push back the threshold. Suggest that you carry and protien bar or something to eat on the long runs too. Something that agrees with you. On my first fourteen mile long slow distance run I got so hungry I could've at the bark of a tree!! Needless to say I hit a wall near the end nad had to walk the last mile in.
Interval Junkie --Nobby
On my first fourteen mile long slow distance run I got so hungry I could've at the bark of a tree!!
Wow, I did that run recently.
2021 Goals: 50mpw 'cause there's nothing else to do