I'll try to condense this as much as possible. First disclaimer - I'm not fast. At all. But as long as I can remember I've been able to run under 30 minutes for the 5k. Stand alone or during a sprint. 28:30 on a good day, 29:30 on a less good day, but literally for over 10 years I've never gone over 30 minutes.
This season: did several tris, leading up to a HIM in August. Also did a swim/run race series (750m/5K)
My HIM was on Aug 8. I went into it fairly undertrained & didn't do so great, but eh.
The next week 8/19, did the swim/run race. 5k was 29:15.
Then slacked off on training for the remainder of August (9 days) & had a women's only sprint to finish my tri season on 8/28. Ran a 31:30 on the exact same course. I've run that same course in another sprint this year as well as 5 of the swim/run series (again, on the exact same course) always under 30:00.
Not a huge deal in itself, but because of that 'wakeup call', since then I've really picked up my run training. I've lost 5 pounds (more to go, but that's another story) and my running still SUCKS! My average pace on training runs is SO MUCH slower than it was mid season this year, or any other year for that matter. (There's absolutely no way I overtrained during the season.)
I simply don't understand how I lost so much fitness so fast, and haven't been able to get it back with 5 weeks of good solid training ?! I seriously doubt I could run a sub 30 min 5K today. My training runs are so slow, even for me. And it seemed to come out of nowhere. Earlier this season I was running half marathons at a 9:30 pace!! Now I can barely muster 1 10 minute mile :( Something just isn't right.
Looking for any other possibilities that could cause a rapid decline in performance, without being able to gain it back????? Iron? Anything else? I feel normal (but really slow)
Thx
This season: did several tris, leading up to a HIM in August. Also did a swim/run race series (750m/5K)
My HIM was on Aug 8. I went into it fairly undertrained & didn't do so great, but eh.
The next week 8/19, did the swim/run race. 5k was 29:15.
Then slacked off on training for the remainder of August (9 days) & had a women's only sprint to finish my tri season on 8/28. Ran a 31:30 on the exact same course. I've run that same course in another sprint this year as well as 5 of the swim/run series (again, on the exact same course) always under 30:00.
Not a huge deal in itself, but because of that 'wakeup call', since then I've really picked up my run training. I've lost 5 pounds (more to go, but that's another story) and my running still SUCKS! My average pace on training runs is SO MUCH slower than it was mid season this year, or any other year for that matter. (There's absolutely no way I overtrained during the season.)
I simply don't understand how I lost so much fitness so fast, and haven't been able to get it back with 5 weeks of good solid training ?! I seriously doubt I could run a sub 30 min 5K today. My training runs are so slow, even for me. And it seemed to come out of nowhere. Earlier this season I was running half marathons at a 9:30 pace!! Now I can barely muster 1 10 minute mile :( Something just isn't right.
Looking for any other possibilities that could cause a rapid decline in performance, without being able to gain it back????? Iron? Anything else? I feel normal (but really slow)
Thx