UKH

I've had a couple of poor months this autumn - very slow, and not doing much distance, in September and October. And suddenly in November things are better, distance is better, speed is picking up - deliberately not giving stats here cos everything is relative  and we're all different.

But why? I am too old for any sort of biorhythms, all parts of the month are the same, I live a fairly constant lifestyle ... there is just no obvious explanation. I guess the answer is just to enjoy it w3hem it's good.

That's life.

Perhaps your body needed the rest and benefitted from the period of lower mileage? 

The slower miles in Autumn were presumably at a lower HR and might therefore have improved your aerobic threshold?

Although, I’m no expert... 

My Garmin has helpfully noted my training is now 'unproductive', which is nice ☹

Similarly, mine is saying that I have had parkruns recently (usually run as a race, and getting faster...) which don't count as training. Time to reset HR zones perhaps?

My Strava “fitness” tracker gives a similar demotivating message. Suggesting I’m 40% less fit than I was 2 years ago.

A bit disappointing given this is my highest mileage year.

How hilly is your parkrun? If I record the parkrun at Whinlatter (about 600ft of ascent) as a 'run' it tells me I'm really unfit as I'm doing a slower pace and higher heart than for a 5k run on the flat...

Compared to Whinlatter, dead flat! About 32m of ascent, but most of it imperceptible. Have run dead-flat Felixstowe, last year, but HR was high enough to account for pace and scored 4.3/5.0. I checked my HR zones after the previous post, Max was set in auto and showed 175, moved it down to 165 (still high for a 68-year-old, but have seen it) and await Saturday morning. I think HR depends on fuel availability and recovery status, it goes much higher when well rested and carb fed, which is not my usual state...

The really annoying thing about my 920xt is the predicted race times - with my VO2 max of 52 it suggests 19:59 for 5k when I am working hard to get under 25:00 - in effect the watch is 30 years slow! It turns out they just use simple look-up tables which take no account of age...

Lots of good thoughts there. I think perhaps we do have rhythms and phases round the year, maybe for reasons we can't see. The thing is to persevere.

I get your frustration. Im feeling it too as had a few weeks off after doing  regular  halfs and now really struggling  to get back up there and out of nowhere i seemed ti half developed  an issue with sport induced hematuria, I know there is nothinf wrong  with me as it goes away with an hour or two/ cutting back on the mileage so i sont see the point of wasting nhs time on going the dr. But it means Ive cut my weekly milage right back to running two 10ks a week now. From doing 20-30 miles a week

When I'm doing fewer miles, performance is definitely more erratic for me. Good days and bad days for no particular reason.

Think we all get these times weather as a lot to do with it for me I'm far better in warm weather