I'm Tired

I find that when this happens every several weeks or once a month, who knows everyone is different, that your body is just tired and needs to catch up. I say just take a little extra rest for a day or 2 like you said you're doing then I would try to go to bed 30 min to an hour earlier the rest of the week. That usually works for me and I'm caught up and recharged in a couple days.

Nutrition, hydration, and rest issues usually cause "dragginess." That and overtraining.

You're working out at a pretty good load 6 days a week early in the season, any specific reason? Is there an early season "A" race you are aiming for?

Edited by Daremo 2006-01-17 9:40 AM

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How many hours of sleep do you have? Any recent bouts of stress? Make an effort to get one extra hour of sleep for the next two weeks, as Gordo would recommend.

Since this is a recurring thing, it is just your body talking back, asking for a break.....you can boost energy with more sleep, better food.... nutritional supplements help my energy/recovery, too....I think everybody hits these patches some time where you just have to back off...we can't be on auto pilot indefinitely.....that's why most training programs build in a recovery week, usually every 4th week or so....I like to ignore them, too, but at my own peril...

I agree w/ the others Bill. You've been pushing it pretty hard. Take a well earned rest. Kick back a couple of cold ones too! Sounds like you need a mental break as well. Just don't get bummed about it, you've got plenty of time. I'm sure you'll be better for it.

Listen to the IM vets here. Then you'll be able to pass a long pearls of wisdom to me when I hit the same wall during my HIM training.

Mark

One more factor to add to nutrition, hydration, stress, sleep, and level of training: germs. Is anyone around you sick? Sometimes we're tired because our body is busy fighting off a cold, maybe even successfully. To parrot all the other non-doctors here, listen to your body and give it the rest it asks for.

Overtraining.

Thanks for all the replies - I am going to take it easy this week and try to get some rest this weekend.

To answer some of the questions above:

I'm getting about 6 hours sleep per night. (Not likely to increase)
I'm laying down a base for IM training right now. (The IM plan I downloaded here says that you should be consistently training 8-10 hours per week before beginning the 20 week plan. I'm building toward that. Given the race distance I am training for I don't think I'M overtraining.)
My race is in September.
My kids are sick, but frankly one of my kids is almost always sick in the winter. I feel fine.
No more stress that usual, but my job can be stressful.
Hydration is fine - nutrition could probably use some work.

Hopefully some rest will do the trick. Thanks again for all the suggestions.

As a fellow 'sleep minimalist', I have found that at least one or two nights a week of 7+ hours does absolute wonders for my entire week.  Generally I range from 5-6.5 per weeknight but I try for one 8 hour night per week.  It is tough as I have 4 kids four and under, but if I just turn off the TV a bit earlier or put away work and commit to it, it pays big dividends.  Just think of it as an essential part of training- the long sleep day, once a week.