Struggling Masters Runner

First of all, how old are you? Male or female?

hello fellow masters runner!

i came down with OTS (over-training syndrome) in June/July of 2020.

had to take six months off from running and three months of no exercise at all just to recover.

I started running again in January of this year and i'm working slowly on getting my miles back up to 50-55mpw.

I had a lot of the same symptoms you do, plus apathy towards running in general.

Sometimes we need a break without knowing it.

good luck!

I stated that I am 53, and like 99% of LR- I am male.

I would reach out to Matt London. Sounds like you’re running too much. You need to lift, bro

This is the kind of thing that requires a coach, not an anon junk message board. At best you might get a tip or two but a coach can evaluate the whole picture.

At 53 I recommend getting to your doc to rule out things that can cause fatigue like low thyroid hormone, low T, anemia, heart conditions, and to take a look at the lungs, in relation to the breathing.

If that's all normal, take a couple low mileage, low intensity rest weeks and see how your body responds. Consider mixing it up with some cross training during that time also. That's my two cents.

I'm in your same demographic, but haven't really experienced anything similar.

The thing that would worry me is the breathing/HR issue. Dead legs is dead legs and maybe rest/cross training gets them back. I'm as reticent as the next "gonna live forever" guy to see a doctor, but I might for breathing/HR issues.

Keep us posted. Wish you the best.

A former coworker experienced a drastic slow down in his running like that shortly before a "window-maker" heart attack. He said he had no other symptoms than he couldn't hit his usual paces.

Why the hell are you trying to get to 7:00 pace? Stop that nonsense.

Look at it this way: You've been running too fast, pushing every day to the point of failure, at paces that send your HR/breathing rate skyrocketing, and not getting enough recovery - for TWO MONTHS STRAIGHT. Of course you're overcooked.

Maybe there's an underlying health issue, so go see your doctor and get checked out.

Doctor says you're okay? Then take a week or two off. No running.

When you start up again, only do short, easy-pace running with lots of walking breaks. Stop and smell the roses. Take pictures on your phone. Whatever it takes, just jog a mile, admire the scenery, jog another mile. Repeat a few times and go home.

Only increase mileage of pace if it feels EASY. Once you're feeling recovered, start with stupid workouts like a 1-mile tempo run, for a few short strides. You're 53, so you have to build off of where you are in reality, not aim for some stupid arbitrary number like 7:00/mile.

Um...yeah...

1) See your doctor first.

2) Even after you get a hopeful clean bill of health, be realistic about your future as a runner. You are 53 (I am 55), and stuff commonly goes sharply down hill for almost all runners at age 50 or soon after. Doesn't matter what your fat percentage is or how much you run or how much kale you eat or if people think you are 38. You can NOT defeat Father Time. Acceptance of that leads to happiness.

3) Go see your doctor.

4) Go see your doctor.

Thanks for the responses.

A few points:

-I know that a message board isn't where you get perfect advice, but it is a way to crowd source and idea. I just didn't want to seem like I was going overboard by going to a doctor.

- The 7:00 pace is something I can handle and have handled even at my age. NOT being able to hit that is a new thing over the past 8 weeks or so. I'm just saying it's not like I went out for a run and randomly decided on 7:00 pace, I've been at this a long time I know what I am capable of running.

- I have a physical next week so I should get a full blood panel. Maybe that will provide some info, otherwise I'm just backing it all waaaay down and not running MORE or FASTER until the short slow runs feel really really easy.

Thanks again for the replies.

What are you PRs for reference? Heat nails me every year and dramatically….it’s like totally loosing the ability to run fast as temps push to 80 degrees or so. I’m a bigger runner though.

It sounds like a medical issue.

What is your bodyweight? Are you heavier than you used to be?

While overtraining is definitely something to consider, I've had the exact same experience twice - once was due to very low folate, and once due to low iron. Both were fixed once I added supplements to raise those levels back up.

It's worth getting yourself to a doctor. Things that I would ask about include: iron levels, folate and b12, thyroid, and possible cardiac issues.

forced injection infection wrote:

This is the kind of thing that requires a coach, not an anon junk message board. At best you might get a tip or two but a coach can evaluate the whole picture.

....and you don't think there are a gazillion coaches on here? As an older runner (and coach for 20 years) my shortness of breath problems ended up being thyroid issues due to Lyme. Am on 50 mcgs of synthroid and it's helped bring my TSH levels down but I still show low O2 whenever I'm on a pulse oximeter and still experience shortness of breath at random times during the day.

It's hard to comment without knowing recent history. I'm 61 and went thru a very similar event for two years at age 58 and 60. I was running two marathons per year (typically BQ times) and three or four halfs, couple of 10k's and two 15 milers. That worked fine for me from like age 50 to 56 then things went south. I finally realized I was racing WAY too much and completely ignoring the 80/20 rule in training. My GP doctor is a tri-athlete and he also gave me hell for doing too many moderate distance early morning fasting runs (12 to 14 miles). I was loosing muscle mass and in general just trashing myself.

I got hit with COVID really hard last Thanksgiving and it shut me down for two months as in no running at all (my immune system attacked my body). This unplanned reset was the best thing that ever happened. I ran no races at all this year, and focused on training for a fall marathon. I have a rigid structure of LSD on Sunday at easy pace, speed work on Tuesday, and Tempo or LT run on Thursday. Balance of week is three really easy recovery runs. I'm now running stronger on my hard workout days than I have in the last four years and actually look forward to thee workouts. For instance two years ago if I did a 20 miler on Sunday, I was totally incapable of even attempting a track workout on Tuesday. But this year, I've been able to complete my Tuesday workouts and nail my times. I also mixed in a rigid schedule of upper body weight training to regain muscle mass and worked on squats and leg lifts for leg strength.

Hope you get this figured out!

Definitely get a heart workup and blood work. An avid ultra runner in my town went to sleep one night and had a massive heart attack and never woke up. He was in great shape and was out running with his training group days before.

If the pipes check out, I would recommend dropping mileage and replacing every other workout with pool running or some other zero impact cardio work. I have found that a lot of masters runners hit a wall in training due to insufficient recovery. After 50, recovery takes on an entirely different dimension. You may feel like $100, but halfway through a workout your body just says "not gonna do it" and you have to quit. That is usually due to insufficient recovery.

You will struggle until you let reality inform your expectation

LOL if you think 7:00 pace is too fast for a 53 year old's workout effort. Is a 53 year old not able to run a 21:30 5k?

I'm also hitting a wall recently, I think the solution is to just make extra sure you're taking your easy days easy. Like reeeaaally slow down a couple of easy days this week and maybe another week. Maybe even stop workouts for a week all together to get fully recovered. As another poster said that they took 6 months off because of over training, I do not at all think that's the solution. Six months is a ton of time, way more than you would need. Just take your runs really slow this week, look around and enjoy the nature. Don't worry about your performance and just enjoy being out there again.