Body not responding to training, should I just stop? (Read 204 times)

Hi,

I'm a 48 year old male and have been running for a little over 34 years.  I have always enjoyed running and have been pretty competitive until the past year or two when I had to slow down due to a string of injuries (Achilles, ankle tendonitis, etc.).  I've pretty much recovered from most of my injuries and have tried to get back into more serious training over the past year.  The issue that my body just doesn't seem to be responding to any type of training.  I've noticed that my training paces have been dramatically slowing over the past year.  A few months ago I could complete a longer run at about 8 min. pace and feel comfortable, now I find that I struggle to complete the same run at 9 min. pace.  I'm noticing the same thing with harder workouts (which I do about 1-2x per week).  In a nutshell - I just feel like I struggle on every run, even easy recovery days.  I also feel like I don't recover from my previous day's workout, even if that run was easy.  My legs constantly ache and feel heavy and I can't move comfortably through even the easiest of runs.  I've adjusted my paces and run around 9 min. pace or slower and even sometimes that feels hard.  I've adjusted my workload and have decreased my mileage in the hopes that would help.  I've dealt with injury or down time in the past and I've always been able to see some level of fitness coming back after a few months of steady training.  But it's frustrating now in that the same process seems to be resulting in decreased fitness.

I have been to my doctor and we've done blood work, etc. and nothing seems to be going on there.  I try to keep up with diet, sleep, etc. as well.  I do understand that as I get older I will slow down and I've experiences this over the years, but this has been surprising as the decline has been pretty dramatic and little seems to help.  Two years ago I was able to run a 5k around 18 minutes, now I doubt I could break 23 minutes.  I'm getting to the point of wondering if I should just stop completely as running has given me little pleasure over the past year.

Any insight or advice is much appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris

I'm a decade older than you and right now my running log is pretty patchy simply because I've had other priorities come along and also wanted time for a few other things, like a few more rounds of golf and walking around the trails with my wife and my camera instead of blowing by everything at speed.

In my mid-later 40's and had a strong aversion to running anything slower than 8ish pace.  I could do it, but I also was realizing that I was intentionally fooling myself about the effort those paces required.  I called them easy, they really weren't and running was truly becoming a chore.

I also concluded that trying to run by pace and distance was flat out counter productive to getting better at running.  That meant a change in my routine and how I would approach my day to day runs.

I dropped the idea of pace and distance and ran by time and effort.  Running is never truly easy but there was a big difference between what was easy by effort and what I wanted to be easy.  Pace went out the window and I kept my easy runs easy, and this meant they had to feel that way.  I also figured out that the amount of 'quality' I actually needed was a lot less than I was doing.  This became one tempo run a week and, since my focus was switching to trail races, a hill workout either once a week or once every two weeks, and strides when I felt like them.  Some weeks had no quality at all, just easy effort runs.  The switch to running by effort also allowed me to run a lot more frequently.  Since I wasn't beating myself up so much by forcing a pace, I could cover 80, 90 or more minutes a day, usually in doubles, and retained a 2 hour weekend long run that I occasionally stretched out closer to 2:30 when I felt I needed it.

Might be worth a quick trip to the doctor to rule out surprises.  I had a friend who had really similar issues, only to find out they had Lyme disease from a tick bite that went untreated and caused fatigue and other issues.  Got that cleared up and bounced back...not saying that'll be the case but I'd hate to swear off running only to find out something more was going on.  I'd think some bloodwork could clear up any medical causes.

Rule out a thyroid issue too.  I developed Graves Disease and it seriously has impacted my fatigue but I do what I can when I feel good.

I certainly hope it's just some general blah or something like that...but it sure is concerning to hear of someone with 34 years of running wisdom noting quick declines in energy, pace, recovery et al.  Seems wise to this reader for you to not give up quickly on medical testing...

If you’re not feeling it, why not try something different for a while? Try weights, body weight workouts, yoga, biking, hiking, gymnastic stuff, it’s all out there waiting. Getting in a workout shouldn’t stress you out. If it does, find something that doesn’t. Try running again in a few months and see how it goes

Chris what sort of mileage are you logging ?

Try to enjoy running for a while. Slow down, give yourself a year to get fitness back gradually. Is your weight up? That makes huge difference. I had a funk this past Fall and winter with aches poor motivation, iincreased weight gain etc. and all my times are much slower this year but I feel better as I spent even more time doing functional strenghth training in winter to get my body back. You need to keep the core, hammys glutes etc strong as you age. Remember it takes longer to get your base back as you age and you had 34 years built up. . I figure with a good year of training, dropping a few lbs. my times will be going down toward Fall and even better next Spring with more base built. Yours will too but don't be too hooked on times. Try to have fun and train regularly and cross train to stay healthy. I would not do more than one fast work out a week and mix in striders some other days or rolling hills and some bike riding too.