[doughywilson]

I’m currently a few months into my aerobic base training after reading Training for the Uphill Athlete. I’m noticing that long Zone 2 runs, even though they feel like a very easy effort, still cause a fair amount of fatigue in my legs. Not so much fatigue that I couldn’t run the following day, but enough that I definitely don’t feel fully recovered. This has led me to a set of questions regarding how to train correctly:

Is it better to get more miles/time in, even if it means running on tired legs every day? In the book, it says that a constant underlying fatigue will be carried around during base training, but it also says that if we’re not feeling better and better each week, something might be off.

Maybe the answer is to run 2-3 weeks carrying fatigue, then rest up during a lighter weight recovery week?

Thoughts?

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on June 30, 2019 at 5:45 pm #24261

During a heavy base building period you will be carrying a fair but if fatigue which is why we caution against expecting great performances during this capacity building period. If your legs are feeling heavy and dead for days on end then you need to back off. The first thing I’d try is keeping a couple of these long Z2 runs down in Z1 and see if that helps. If not you may have upped mileage too fast. Be sure you are doing adequate active recovery between runs. Rolling your legs or swimming will help freshen them up a bit.

Scott

[doughywilson]

doughywilson on July 1, 2019 at 2:39 pm #24307

Thanks Scott.