Overtraining and exhaustion

After a really hard week of running last week I am feeling like I have overdone it. We have done two runs after our long run on Sunday and both of them have been slow and really rough. Both myself and my running partner were noticing this and having trouble figuring out what happened. One thought is that we have been doing so several really slow runs in an effort to keep our heart rates lower that we have forgotten what it is like to run fast. I am pretty sure it has been a symptom of over-training. One week we are kicking butt through some hard runs and feeling great, the next week we are pooped and slow as turtles. I hope she is able to recover sufficiently for the half she is doing in two weeks, I am sure she will. She has a nice easy taper week coming up.

My mistake last week was not so much a slight increase in miles (though it certainly didn't help I am sure) but doing so many hard runs in a row. I think of the five runs I did last week, I rated four of them as "hard" runs or red runs. One LSD run up the hill for 5.5 mi. one tempo run, one speed workout and a hill repeat. Way too much despite what my enthusiasm was saying. That is what I get for reading running books, I get all pumped!

For my part I am now in the midst of taking a second day off from running which seems to be helping my overall energy level quite a bit. We are ding a 12 mile run tomorrow, so hopefully I will be rested enough for it. I think I will have no problems as the plan is to go really slow.