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Unusually quick leg fatigue
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My legs are fatiguing abnormally fast at the moment, like within a mile they become much slower and heavier. I did a half marathon yesterday and it was the hardest run I have ever done. Got just under 2 hours, but in the last few years I could do this between 1.25 and 1.35 depending on training and course.

Some history:
I did a 50k in december last year, after that I got pretty sick for a week. Then for 6 months I didn't really run too much. Once a week, never felt good but I thought it'd just be because I was running once a week. Then four months ago I slowly started to ramp it up more. Didn't feel good but I just thought be patient. Have been running 4-5 times a week. BUT I never improved, my legs always felt very heavy and fatigued. Didn't experience any improvement in fitness, or in comfort when doing just a simple short easy jog.

Last week I got nervous about the half marathon and got a massage in a desperate attempt to get some power back in my legs. Apparently my hips were very tight, but then that didn't seem to help much on sunday...

Has anyone else experienced this sort of thing? Any particular issues?
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Re: Unusually quick leg fatigue [andy12] [ In reply to ]
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I know this isn’t really a helpful diagnosis but it sounds like you’re fried. I have experienced similar things and the only thing that helped was active recovery (like walking only/very gentle cycling) for weeks until it started to ease off. You could go down the rabbit hole of blood tests etc but you really need a baseline to establish your values. I think that trying to diagnose/identify exactly what is up will be hard.

Was the 50k your first ultra? How did you feel when you finished? Was the sickness abnormally long for you? How’s your diet etc?

My immune system took an absolute battering after I did my first ultra and it took me quite a while to get back to normal. I get cold sores when I am run down and I had the worst outbreak I’ve ever experienced as an adult after that race.
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Re: Unusually quick leg fatigue [andy12] [ In reply to ]
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It sounds like classic overtraining syndrome.

Go see a doctor.
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Re: Unusually quick leg fatigue [hiscotsg] [ In reply to ]
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hiscotsg wrote:
I know this isn’t really a helpful diagnosis but it sounds like you’re fried. I have experienced similar things and the only thing that helped was active recovery (like walking only/very gentle cycling) for weeks until it started to ease off. You could go down the rabbit hole of blood tests etc but you really need a baseline to establish your values. I think that trying to diagnose/identify exactly what is up will be hard.

Was the 50k your first ultra? How did you feel when you finished? Was the sickness abnormally long for you? How’s your diet etc?

My immune system took an absolute battering after I did my first ultra and it took me quite a while to get back to normal. I get cold sores when I am run down and I had the worst outbreak I’ve ever experienced as an adult after that race.

Nah it was maybe my third race of 50k+. I felt pretty bad when I finished, like the muscular pain was a lot deeper than normal and sitting down wouldn't help or anything. Sickness wasn't abnormally long. The first day I actually just thought it was a hangover, but it went for another 5 days and was just quite strange. I hadn't been sick like that before, it felt very different and had some weird things.

I'd say my diet is pretty good overall.

It's been nearly a year and the first 6 months of that was not trying to exercise heavily

Thanks for the reply
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Re: Unusually quick leg fatigue [Tom_hampton] [ In reply to ]
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Tom_hampton wrote:
It sounds like classic overtraining syndrome.

Go see a doctor.

Yea I'm not in a position to this week but next week I will be.

Overtraining seems weird in that I wasn't training that much.
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Re: Unusually quick leg fatigue [andy12] [ In reply to ]
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andy12 wrote:
Tom_hampton wrote:
It sounds like classic overtraining syndrome.

Go see a doctor.

Yea I'm not in a position to this week but next week I will be.

Overtraining seems weird in that I wasn't training that much.

I'm not a doctor, so I can't comment on all the mechanisms that might lead to it. But, everything you've described matches up very well with the symptoms. Regardless, its severe enough and has been going on long enough that a medical professional should be involved.

Keep us posted.
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Re: Unusually quick leg fatigue [andy12] [ In reply to ]
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I had a similar thing start about a year ago. Fatigue that would set in a lot quicker in my legs, and never seemed to go away regardless of how much rest, recovery, or sleep I got.

Finally after 6 months of feeling weaker and weaker, I finally went to the doctor.

Turned out I had hypothyroidism. I had many of the other symptoms (hazy brain fog, dry skin, weight gain) but I was able to rationalize them away (tough day at work, dry skin bc it’s winter, weight gain bc I’m eating Xmas cookies). Everything came into focus once I saw the blood results.

I agree with others to go see a doctor. Hopefully it’s just something that you need some extended rest. But worth a visit to rule stuff out that could be more serious.
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Re: Unusually quick leg fatigue [blueapplepaste] [ In reply to ]
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blueapplepaste wrote:
I had a similar thing start about a year ago. Fatigue that would set in a lot quicker in my legs, and never seemed to go away regardless of how much rest, recovery, or sleep I got.

Finally after 6 months of feeling weaker and weaker, I finally went to the doctor.

Turned out I had hypothyroidism. I had many of the other symptoms (hazy brain fog, dry skin, weight gain) but I was able to rationalize them away (tough day at work, dry skin bc it’s winter, weight gain bc I’m eating Xmas cookies). Everything came into focus once I saw the blood results.

I agree with others to go see a doctor. Hopefully it’s just something that you need some extended rest. But worth a visit to rule stuff out that could be more serious.

Now I want to try to go to the doctor sooner! But I have booked in next friday after I return home.

Thanks for the replies guys
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