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. 

Workouts this week: Feb. 5

From Monday's sunset trail run

I've been working out six days a week for a while now. I think I really want to scale back to five days a week. I'd like more time for myself. To be home. To do laundry. Clean out my car. I just need more time.

I've been really tired this week. I don't know if I'm doing too much, coming down with an illness or just not getting enough sleep. I think that's one of the reasons I want to cut back on working out.

Sunday: BodyPump + Yoga
My quads were sore today so I went easy with leg weights (lunges) but tried increasing my arm weight. I tried increasing for biceps at the end and DIED.

This was also SuperBowl Sunday and our state's team was in the Super Bowl so yoga attendance was down. And MY FAVORITE YOGA TEACHER was subbing. That was awesome. She taught vinyasa and I probably challenged myself a little more than I do with the other teacher.

Monday: 4 mile run
Run at the IM Fields. Tried the Strava route again. Maybe I'm going the wrong direction on the route. I will try it ONE MORE TIME. My legs were sore. This run was a tiny bit slower than the other day, but I probably shouldn't worry about 7 seconds a mile.

Tuesday: Yoga
I felt like more yoga today. We used blocks a lot. It was a good class and I needed it.

Wednesday: Gymnastics
I was tired but went to gymnastics anyway. I did some pullovers and back hip circles on the bars, which was fun.

Thursday: Off
Off. I was supposed to run. But I needed a day off. It was too cold to run outside (and super windy) and I didn't really want to go to the indoor track. I also had some work to deal with from 5-6:30. So if I only run twice this week, oh well. I usually do this once or month or so.

Friday: Yoga
Yoga. Very easy yoga class. I forgot to turn the workout on my Apple Watch. Oh well. I went to bed at 9:30 p.m. That's how tired I was. I woke up at 6:45 a.m. and felt a lot better.

Saturday: Sandy Creek Run
I went back to the epic 6.5 mile trail around Lake Chapman at Sandy Creek park. It was just as bad as I remember and I don't think I walked any less than last time. I didn't fall though, so that's good. My times were dead on with last time. I paused my watch midway to catch my breath, but it didn't pause so Boo. My times were weird. Strava said I was faster on the route, by a minute. But it also said my pace was 24 seconds a mile slower. I'm confused.

There are at least three creeks to cross in the first three miles. I got mud on my shoes, which I am every unhappy about. I walked a lot. I took Matt and he tweaked his ankles some. I'm hoping they don't bruise tomorrow. He says the course is tougher than we are and doesn't want to go back. (I really do want to go back! I need to get my times down.)

**Update: On Monday, Matt texted me that we should definitely try the course again. Because we have to do better. Also, I'm not nearly as beat up as I was last time. I died on the route and for about a week after. I had a great run two days later, so maybe I'm tougher for doing the run? Or I needed a light week?

Running hiatus

This year I decided I was going to run more. Since I got a member to the university gym in January, I've run faithfully once a week or more. I finally got my 5k time under 25 minutes. I was planning on adding more miles and runs during the week. But my knee has other plans.

It's been painful for about a week now. I tried doing some stretches for when my left knee hurt last year, but I'm not sure it's helping. Thursday I tried to go running and I got about 7 minutes in before I started feeling awful stabbing pains in my knee. I tried to push through it. If I ran softly it didn't seem to hurt, but I gave up. I couldn't. The pain was still there. So I count Thursday as my off day.

I went to Pure Barre yesterday and my knee was the worst it's been. If I bend my knee and put weight on it, it hurt.

I need to see a physical therapist. But to do that I have to see a sports medicine doctor, which would take few days for an appointment, and then another week to see the physical therapist, and I want my knee to be back to normal in 2 weeks.

There's a girl in Pure Barre who told me she worked as a physical therapist. I went up to her after class and asked her about my knee. I'm sure she hates when people do that. I hate asking, but it's easier than waiting 2 weeks for an appointment.

She was so nice and helpful. So much more so than I expected. It made my day.

She thought it was my IT band and that I needed to stretch it. She showed me some stretches and indeed it did feel tight. She might be right. And saves me a bunch of time.

I went home and stretched and iced. And this morning I didn't run. So I broke my run once a week rule. (I did try to run Thursday). So sorry goals, I need to get my knee better.