Exhaustion

Today I was so exhausted. I struggled through work. I came home and took a nap. And still was so tired. It was my day off running. But still at 8 p.m. I was ready for bed.

I've had this bone tired feeling for weeks now. I think it's all the 5 a.m. wake-ups catching up with me. I try to go to bed early, but I'm super sensitive to even 10 minutes of lost sleep. I've been walking around with like a zombie. And I'm still not used to the 5 a.m. alarms. 

My legs aren't particularly tired. My quads are a little sore. And my achilles are sore first thing in the morning, but loosen up with walking around. It's nothing I'm worried about.This is fine for me. My legs are feeling fine. It's just a general feeling of fatigue, almost like I'm about to get sick.

But when I look at the numbers this is why I'm tired:

• I've been training hard with no cutback week for 9 weeks. 

• The week before my May 28 half marathon was my last light week (taper before the half) 

• The week of June 11 (7 weeks ago), I switched from running 4 days a week to 5 days a week. 

• The last time I took two consecutive days off running was June 4-5. 

• I ran more than 120 miles in July. It was the first time I got the Strava badge for 200 km in a month. 

• I've run around 30 miles for the last 6 weeks. (When 25 is closer to my normal). This is a lot of miles for me. And the point where I start to hurt and break down.

So I'm going to give myself a break. Two days off running. I'll lower my miles a little this week. And hope I start to recover. I've been working really hard and one run (or one week) doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. 

Let's see if I can feel less exhausted. Off days are important. 

Shin splints : what my chiropractor said

I went to the chiropractor for my back. And for my shin splints too. She's not an orthopedist, but I know if my hips are out of alignment it can make my knees hurt. I wanted to make sure this wasn't causing or aggravating my shin splints.

She remarked that my shins were really tight. And my quads too.

I told her my quads have been tight for three or so weeks now. (From Bodypump, I think).

I also told her my knees felt funny when I walk down stairs. (Ding, ding, ding).

Then she tested how high I could lift my legs while laying on my belly. (Same test an orthopedist did for my IT band issue years ago.) She test if my legs felt tight when she bent them a certain way. Then she tested my knees. She had me flex my knees while she poked them.

Basically, my tight quads (that I thought nothing about) have been wreaking havoc on my lower leg and knees. Because my quads are tight, so are my shins. And somehow my knees are tracking wrong due to a muscle imbalance. My outside quads are strong my my medial quad is weak, and that's causing knee issues. So she gave me some stretches for the medial quad and for my knee.

And I feel all sorts of messed up.

The good news is my shins are feeling better.  I've been resting and making sure to up my calcium. They feel almost good enough to run on. I'd like to give it a few more days. (Maybe 10 days off running? Honestly, I'm fine with losing some speed. I don't have any planned races.)

I'm not sure how I feel about my knee and running.

My knee did hurt worse after getting adjusted. I'd felt a twinges before I went in, so it was a problem waiting to happen. It felt better the next morning, so nothing to worry about.

I've taken a whole week off running and I think I'll take a few more days and then try some miles.