Marathon Training and feeling depleted- tips?

Bulldogs1717

Hello
I'm feeling like I must be doing something wrong. I'm frequently feeling that "bonk" feeling during training lately on my runs. I tried scaling back intensity and am only weight lifting 2 days/week in the gym so as to not overtrain. However, I am noticing I am struggling with even easier workouts like a steady state 6 mile run. Yesterday I did that and had to walk at mile 4, so I tried again today and only made it to 5 miles. I am not sure why this is happening, as I am used to running 30-35 miles/week regularly and have just noticed this happening recently despite efforts to pare back. Does anyone have any thoughts on what could be causing this? Insufficient carbs? More rest days? Not sure but I feel unhappy with myself and my performance when I had been making gains in endurance and strength up until this point. Same thing has happened with weights- on those days I'm in the gym I feel like I "just can't" complete sets etc and that's just not like me....

Lietchi

Have you tried taking a few days off completely instead of just scaling back? Sounds like you may be overtraining.
Can intake could be contributing too, but you haven't given us much info to go on: calorie intake, carb intake, personal stats?

Bulldogs1717

@Lietchi thank you that would have been helpful to tell you! I take in roughly 1600 calories/day- sometimes more if it's a long run or a lot of calorie expenditure. I aim for about 180g of carbs and 120g protein. I am 5'2 and weigh about 114-117 depending on the day. I am not looking to lose weight, but just enhance athletic performance. I am looking at these numbers now and wondering if I'm just not eating enough period? I am not a huge person but this is just breaking even. Maybe nutrition is the problem? I definitely eat pretty clean so I know my nutrient content is good but maybe just need more fuel?
I hate taking extra days off but I will if that's necessary

cmriverside

Oh, wow. Definitely under-fueling!

Bulldogs1717

@cmriverside what do you suggest I increase too? Just general overall caloric intake or carb specific or protein specific goal?

cmriverside

I'm not a marathon runner, aren't there protocols for macro splits for training?

Same thing for calories in general. If you aren't using a device that syncs to myfitnesspal for your calories, then go to some running website and calculate what you should be eating.

I would think somewhere north of 2000 and probably even more than that. You're not trying to lose weight are you?

COGypsy

1600 calories a day sounds super low for your activity level. Where did you get that number from? Have you run your stats through a TDEE calculator with the additional marathon training?

I took your height and weight, guessed age at 35 and used "moderate exercise 3-5 days per week" as the activity multiplier and got 1800 calories for maintenance. And that's probably a low activity estimation, based on your original post. It was 2000 calories for "heavy exercise 6-7 days per week".

How have other things been? Hair loss? Nails breaking or peeling? Generally low energy/sleeping a lot? Weight gain/loss? Body aches? Being more sore or sore for longer than usual after training? How long have your calories been so low and/or how long since you added the marathon training?

Rest days might help for recovery, but I strongly suspect you're under-fueling and an extra rest day or two is more of a band-aid than a solution.

Djproulx

Background: I've done several marathons, two as the run split of an IM race, and one open marathon.

A few questions: What is your background? (more of an endurance background, or more strength background?) Have you been running 35 MPW and lifting 2 days per week for a long time, or is this a heavier training load than you are used to executing? How far out is your race?

Are you following a formal training plan? What week are you at in the plan? How many run vs rest days? Does the plan include recovery weeks?(periodization)

Regarding your goals: Are you focused on the marathon event as primary and strength as secondary, or vice versa?

With regard to nutrition, please provide insight into how you are fueling your training runs. Nutrition for an endurance athlete consists of 1) water 2) Electrolytes and 3) Carbohydrates ( Unless you're trying to maintain a ketogenic diet while training, which is another complicating factor)

While you consider my questions, a few examples from my last coach regarding "Typical" Grams of Carbohydrates Per Hour, as well as electrolyte and fluid amounts for a 2-3 hour training run.

2-3 Hour Endurance Run: 60-90 grams of CARBS PER HOUR

example of nutrition for a run: 1 16 oz bottle of Infinit SPEED (no caffeine) or JET FUEL (caffeine) , plus a Maurten 100 cal Gel at 45 and 90 minutes, plus a second 16 oz bottle of Precision Hydration 1000.

If using whole foods, think of 2 almond butter packets and/or a Picky Bar every 45 minutes, in additon to the liquids. More liquids/electrolytes needed if temps are very warm.


Without knowing anything about your situation, your post suggests underfueling and/or inadequate recovery as possible issues.

spiriteagle99

DJProulx has some good questions. A few others: Is this your first marathon? First time doing runs over two hours? It takes time to build endurance. The best way to do that is to run slow and easy for anything but deliberate once a week speed training. Are you following a plan? Are you drinking before and during your runs? I usually drink every 2 miles on runs over 40 minutes since that is the usual distance for water tables in races where I live. It helps to get your stomach used to taking in water, if you haven't been doing it regularly. Are you taking in fuel (i.e. gels) for runs over 90 minutes? It is good to practice race fueling on your long runs to see what tastes good and what sits most easily in the stomach. Is it warm where you live right now? Heat (anything over 70F) takes a lot out of you when working hard. Dehydration or over-hydration can both make you feel awful.

You should definitely be eating back your exercise calories if you are training for a marathon. I have run 5 and for each I lost a few pounds despite eating back every calorie I burned while running. Logging my food and exercise here meant that I knew how much leeway I had so I didn't eat too much (common for new long distance runners) or too little. My diary gave me anything from 500-1800 extra calories a day. Mostly I tried to increase carbs and protein.

If you are already doing all the above, and still feeling depleted, a trip to the doctor might be a good idea. A lot of distance runners have issues with low ferritin. Several years ago I found my runs getting more and more difficult, though at the time I wasn't training for anything longer than a HM. I was slower and felt exhausted. Every run felt hard. Turned out my ferritin level was very low, though a finger prick for anemia showed no problem. It took about 3 years of iron supplements to get my iron stores back to normal, though my running improved after a few months of supplements. Long Covid is also a possibility or Lyme.

tomcustombuilder

More carbs on training days, no brainer.

westrich20940

Runner here =D....I'd say you need to eat more. Do you fuel ON your runs? For me personally, if I'm going to be running ~45 min or more I take a couple running gels with me. I can do a 10k with nothing but that's about it and I hit that wall. So then every 40 min or so I take one. I'd also throw in one or two full rest days and see how that makes you feel.

I'm not sure if nothing else has changed about your lifestyle how you were doing what you're doing and now all of a sudden it changed...but I'd not be able to even run 20-25 miles/week on 1600 calories per day.

Edit: just to add, if I were training for a marathon, I would not be even thinking about losing weight or being in a calorie deficit.

lightenup2016

When that happened to me, it was anemia. I had given blood during Covid, and that plus monthly blood loss and a lot of running, I became anemic and could feel it on my runs. Maybe get your hemoglobin, iron and ferritin checked?

Motorsheen

Yep... gotta agree with what has been said above.

Calories are needed (obviously ) also, sleep is so important.

I've trained for, and ran, both half and full marathons, and the long miles came much easier after a very good night's sleep.

For those runs after a poor night's sleep... they were no fun; I really dragged.

Carbs? Yeah, there's your fuel.

I remember, back in the day, there would be pasta dinners the night before a marathon or even a 10K. The problem was, 'just the night before' was too late for that type of carbo-load.

Best of Luck !