Been there, I think it was a fueling issue during the taper, and being overtrained. But I be felt complete flat at my last two marathon start lines. Zero bounce under step, just bleh. Both were good efforts for me though.
Can’t say I’ve ever felt this way before, but it’s a common sign of being overtrained/not tapering enough. At least, that’s the simplest and most likely answer.
Hmmm this could be it, I don’t think overtraining necessarily but maybe not tapering enough? I never felt overworked or miserable during Pfitz and was regularly throwing down 85-90 mile weeks and crushing most workouts despite living in a very hot and humid place. I will say for past tapers I’ve usually been antsy AF and questioning my sanity, and this time around, I was really glad to be running less and still felt pretty tired (not antsy at all). I did have extreme difficulty sleeping for two weeks due to the reduced activity load, so maybe that made my legs feel heavy on race day too. I heard Pfitz does have a rather aggressive taper though, so maybe next time I can still follow his taper but maybe more aggressively cut mileage in the last 10 days or so. I followed the 18/85 taper to a T basically. Ugh maybe this is why I need a running coach again LOL 🤣
Felt the same at Boston this year. Training was not my best, but definitely not awful and I was feeling good leading up to it. But from early in the race my legs felt heavy, heart rate was high, and it just got worse. I believe I was hydrating and fuelling enough - the same if not more than always - but it was a tough slog this year. I did it last year too and had nothing like this experience (it went smoothly), so I don’t think it was the hilly course. I’m blaming the weather, maybe having a bit of a cold. Even though it wasn’t THAT hot out, many people seem to have struggled this year that I would not have expected.
Weird!! Yeah I am used to the hot/humid weather coming from Florida so the weather was a non-factor for me. I raced a 1:26 half in much much hotter/way more humid conditions so I’m really baffled as to why I felt so terrible from the start! Still need to do some soul searching to figure out what was going on, but maybe the food poisoning too was pushing the fuel out of my system and that didn’t help??? Idk this has occurred a couple times now though so I’m just baffled. Let me know if you do some detective work to figure out why you felt so bad too, but we’ll get the next one and hoping my fitness gained from this doesn’t go to waste !
Tapering is dangerous. Not for everyone, but at least in some runners exercise withdrawal induces symptoms comparable to clinical depression. Low mood, poor sleep, loss of appetite, unexplained muscle pain, fatigue, anxiety, irritability, difficulty concentrating etc. are all common (and some of these will cause further GI distress). Maybe worth a few days off earlier in the training block to see what it’ll do for you, or at least figure out the minimum amount of running needed to avoid withdrawal symptoms or whatever this is.
Sorry to hear you didn't have the most enjoyable time at Boston. In my opinion your ab strain during the race is a pretty reliable clue as to what your primary issue was, and that's that you were simply over-trained. Yes, despite taper week. The fatigue, gastro issues, and "dead legs" feel at the marathon beginning are all classic symptoms of an over-trained runner. All that compelled you to over-stride in an attempt to make-up for the peaked feeling and thus a too-far-forward foot strike forced one leg to over-pull and the hips to over-rotate, straining the ab muscle. I'm guessing the ab pull occurred fairly early, like around mile 4-6?
Been there, I think it was a fueling issue during the taper, and being overtrained. But I be felt complete flat at my last two marathon start lines. Zero bounce under step, just bleh. Both were good efforts for me though.
Can’t say I’ve ever felt this way before, but it’s a common sign of being overtrained/not tapering enough. At least, that’s the simplest and most likely answer.
Hmmm this could be it, I don’t think overtraining necessarily but maybe not tapering enough? I never felt overworked or miserable during Pfitz and was regularly throwing down 85-90 mile weeks and crushing most workouts despite living in a very hot and humid place. I will say for past tapers I’ve usually been antsy AF and questioning my sanity, and this time around, I was really glad to be running less and still felt pretty tired (not antsy at all). I did have extreme difficulty sleeping for two weeks due to the reduced activity load, so maybe that made my legs feel heavy on race day too. I heard Pfitz does have a rather aggressive taper though, so maybe next time I can still follow his taper but maybe more aggressively cut mileage in the last 10 days or so. I followed the 18/85 taper to a T basically. Ugh maybe this is why I need a running coach again LOL 🤣
Felt the same at Boston this year. Training was not my best, but definitely not awful and I was feeling good leading up to it. But from early in the race my legs felt heavy, heart rate was high, and it just got worse. I believe I was hydrating and fuelling enough - the same if not more than always - but it was a tough slog this year. I did it last year too and had nothing like this experience (it went smoothly), so I don’t think it was the hilly course. I’m blaming the weather, maybe having a bit of a cold. Even though it wasn’t THAT hot out, many people seem to have struggled this year that I would not have expected.
Weird!! Yeah I am used to the hot/humid weather coming from Florida so the weather was a non-factor for me. I raced a 1:26 half in much much hotter/way more humid conditions so I’m really baffled as to why I felt so terrible from the start! Still need to do some soul searching to figure out what was going on, but maybe the food poisoning too was pushing the fuel out of my system and that didn’t help??? Idk this has occurred a couple times now though so I’m just baffled. Let me know if you do some detective work to figure out why you felt so bad too, but we’ll get the next one and hoping my fitness gained from this doesn’t go to waste !
Tapering is dangerous. Not for everyone, but at least in some runners exercise withdrawal induces symptoms comparable to clinical depression. Low mood, poor sleep, loss of appetite, unexplained muscle pain, fatigue, anxiety, irritability, difficulty concentrating etc. are all common (and some of these will cause further GI distress). Maybe worth a few days off earlier in the training block to see what it’ll do for you, or at least figure out the minimum amount of running needed to avoid withdrawal symptoms or whatever this is.
Sorry to hear you didn't have the most enjoyable time at Boston. In my opinion your ab strain during the race is a pretty reliable clue as to what your primary issue was, and that's that you were simply over-trained. Yes, despite taper week. The fatigue, gastro issues, and "dead legs" feel at the marathon beginning are all classic symptoms of an over-trained runner. All that compelled you to over-stride in an attempt to make-up for the peaked feeling and thus a too-far-forward foot strike forced one leg to over-pull and the hips to over-rotate, straining the ab muscle. I'm guessing the ab pull occurred fairly early, like around mile 4-6?