UKH

Hello,

I hope someone can help with this.

I'm reasonably fit. Male, 45 with a VO2max of 53. I got ill a month ago but was just finishing Garmin's 10k training plan. I was happily running 3-4 times a week, and predicted to achieve about 46 minutes for a 10k. Since then I've just felt too knackered/vaguely ill to run.

I have a busy week looking after two under 5s, and I haven't had Covid, but when I did a 14k orienteering race on Thursday I felt utterly terrible afterwards.

I knew I was pushing myself, but it seems that whenever I do I have similar symptoms. I feel slightly nauseated, then get gut cramps, have a few bouts of diahorrea over a couple of hours, then just feel wiped out...sometimes for up to a couple of days.

This can't be right.

My Garmin watch is a sea of warnings. I'm eating OK, but not doing anything special pre/post running. I stretch a bit, but not enough. I probably don't drink enough fluid through the day.

Any ideas?

In reply to strangecharm:

See a doctor.

In reply to strangecharm:

Could be that you are pushing yourself too hard overall and your body is telling you to slow down a bit. Worth considering where your psychological stress levels are at as well as how physically active/busy you are. Your body essentially experiences physical and psychological stress as one and the same, so normal training schedule + increase in stress can lead to overtraining type problems creeping up on you. Especially with a bout of illness throw into the mix.

The other thing I’d be asking myself in your shoes (which I was earlier this year) is have you allowed yourself a proper chance to recover since being ill, or have you tried to just carry on as normal? 

Could be a fair number of other things too though, so John’s advice is sensible.

Fair warning: I’m not a doctor, physio or anything like that.

In reply to strangecharm:

How often do you have recovery weeks or has the training just go harder and harder every week?

In reply to Currently Resting:

13 week Garmin training plan - gradual increase in intensity focused on target time of about 48 minutes for 10k.  Then I’ll…4 weeks just running around after children/life…though this has happened previously if I suddenly push too far.  So no recovery weeks, and 2 year-old doesn’t do rest days…. 😀

In reply to strangecharm:

I've got fibromyalgia. I notice if I push too hard or continually ramp up over a few weeks I need more of a down week every 3 or 4 weeks, than what a standard training plan provides. Otherwise I get ill.

Not saying you have a long term health condition. More that off the shelf plans, even so called watch driven 'smart' plans are still pretty generic and might need tweaking for you

In reply to strangecharm:

Just because you haven't tested positive for Covid, doesn't mean you haven't had Covid.

Symptoms certainly fall within Long Covid.

In reply to strangecharm:  a combination of fatigue, dehydration and overestimated fitness would also do this. 

In reply to wbo2:

Especially as a garmin VO2 max is very much a crude estimate

In reply to ianstevens:

I second this, i have had the same bordering on elite VO2max for my extended rest period (year +)

In reply to strangecharm:

You don't say what illness you've had, you've been stressing your body for a number of weeks, you haven't had a rest.... It sounds like a recipe for overtraining and the problems you list are all  symptoms.  https://www.hss.edu/article_overtraining.asp

You don't get fitter when you're stressing your body - fitness improvements come when it recovers and repairs itself. I'd take a few down weeks and recover, then go again but ramp up slower. 

In reply to strangecharm:

No recovery days or weeks just leads to a training hole you are digging. That will have made you more susceptible when you did get Ill. Combined into a wipe out.

In reply to strangecharm: Don`t forget rest is part of training.