Muscle Fatigue

I am wondering if anyone has any advice for aleviating muscle fatigue.  I started training for a half marathon about a month ago.  I log between 20 and 30 miles a week with 2-3 cross train/rest days.  I normally walk/run or use the machines at the gym on those days.

In the past 2 weeks, I have noticed that it has become harder to run because of sore and tired muscles.  I tried to run an easy 5 last night and ended up walking half because my calves and quads felt tight and burned.

I have trained for 2 full marathons before and have not experienced this.  I have been adding about 10 minutes of stretching after all of my work outs, hoping it will help with the tight feeling. 

I generally eat between 1300-1500 calories.  (I am 5' and weigh 117.)  I don't eat a lot of meat, but I try to eat nuts and yogurt every day.

I am wondering if it has to do with my diet or training practices.  Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks!

Having recently experienced this I'd say two things: Rest & Recovery. 

* Do you take a day off a week?  If not, you might need to start doing that, immediately.  One or two days off will help tremendously, believe me. 

* You might be sleeping too little.  I was getting about 7-8 hours a night and found out that, with my training, I perform optimally when I get 8-9 hours a night.  I started adding 30-45 minutes per night and noticed the difference immediately.  Enough rest is a huge part of recovery. 

* Up your calories!!  In addition to rest, good nutrition is KEY to recovery - both in terms of the amount of calories and the quality of those calories.  There is no reason that, with all your training, you should be eating so little.  No wonder your muscles hurt and your energy is zapped!  You are not feeding your body enough to replenish your energy and fuel your training.  Also, you need to eat more protein!!  Not only will it help your muscles repair, but it will keep any dangers of anemia at bay (particularly being a runner).

Good luck and train safe.

It's probably both. You are not eating nearly enough calories to fuel your workouts and you are probably in a state of overtraining as well.

First thing I would recommend is taking 2 or 3 days off. While you are taking it easy, you might want to visit runnersworld.com for some articles on nutrition and training or go to the library and see if they have any books by Nancy Clark.

Original Post by smeek03:

I generally eat between 1300-1500 calories.  (I am 5' and weigh 117.)  I don't eat a lot of meat, but I try to eat nuts and yogurt every day.

 

This is your problem. You need to eat more! Are you maintaining? (With those stats, I'd think so!). If so, you're looking at ~2200-2300 calories. So a deficit (reasonable) woule be ~1900 calories. 

If  you are getting charlie horses or cramps in your muscles you may not be eating enough potassium.    Try eating a banana a day and see if that helps.

Thanks for all the input! :-)  I took a complete rest day yesterday and ate the amount of calories on my burn meter, which says I burn 1650 in a day.  I definitely feel less achy today.

Only since you have run marathons before and not experienced this, have you started any new medications? If the rest day does not do the trick, some people find that CO-Q10 supplement helps muscles (especially if they are taking any statin drugs) But, rest is not to be overlooked either!

Original Post by smeek03:

Thanks for all the input! :-)  I took a complete rest day yesterday and ate the amount of calories on my burn meter, which says I burn 1650 in a day.  I definitely feel less achy today.

This doesn't sound right.  I bet you burn a lot more than that in a day especially if you're logging all those miles.