If you tell someone you're tired and cold, you'll probably not get much sympathy. In fact they will probably tell you that you've just done a 20-mile run, a 60-mile week, and it's the coldest few days of the winter. At least they told me that. You, on the other hand, may be a low mileage runner in a warm and distant land, such is the wonder of the World Wide Whatsit, but that's your problem.
I felt great at the Bramley 20! I held plenty back, despite a pacey last mile or so, and felt fine afterwards. 2 days later, my legs were feeling somewhat leaden for my usual Tuesday club run. I couldn't run at anything like marathon pace. Despite the severe cold, I did over 9 miles, and actually felt better at the end than the start. By Wednesday I felt much better. My lunchtime recovery run went well. I kept my heart rate low, and my pace was about the best it's been for that HR.
I'm telling you all this because I think I was in control up to this point. By Wednesday evening though I was starting to feel rather tired! I went home feeling emotionally drained. I felt depressed! I managed a few household chores, but by 9pm I decided I'd had enough and went to bed.
I put it down to the fact that I'd gone to bed quite late on Tuesday evening and just needed some extra sleep. After a lengthy but poor quality night's sleep, I felt dreadful on Thursday. It was a real problem concentrating on work. I just about managed to struggle through, but couldn't face the thought of that evening's club session. I went anyway and decided I'd just have a slow jog with some friends while the others did the full session. After 4.3 miles I'd had enough. Afterwards I felt tired, withdrawn, cold and depressed.
I've always feared overtraining. Leaden legs are a symptom, as is depression. A raised heart rate is another symptom, but when I checked it on Wednesday it was low - 37bpm. Why was I feeling like this? When you're training to the extent that I've been, you get to know your body, and I didn't feel that I'd done enough to warrant feeling this bad.
The clue that something other than the mileage might be the cause, was the mild diarrhoea and stomach pains I had late on Thursday. At last something I could blame other than the heavy training!
Another disturbed night's sleep, tossing and turning, feeling cold, followed, and by Friday morning I'd had enough and phoned in sick. Whatever the reason for my malaise I definitely needed some quality rest. I got up and got dressed, but went back to bed. Lying there fully clothed in bed shivering, my little weather station reading a temperature in the room of 22 degrees, I was still questioning whether I'd simply overdone it and was just suffering from fatigue (and hence should be in work, according to the 'suck it up' school of work ethics).
What I find bizarre, is that Saturday morning I recorded my lowest ever resting heart rate: 35bpm! If I was overtraining, fatigued, or virus-ridden, I would not have expected a reading that low! I was feeling much better, so decided to try some miles on the treadmill at the gym. If I was still going to do my Sunday long run, then I felt that it was sensible to test myself over 5 miles first, rather than launch straight into a 15-miler after 2 days of complete rest. The gym went OK!
So did I overdo it? Was this simply a 2 day stomach bug? I wish I'd had more in the way of physical symptoms. Like I said, tell someone you're tired and cold after a 60 mile week in the depth of winter, and you'll get the obvious answer!
Update:
Actually having just looked at my heart rate trace from the gym session, my HR was some 5bpm higher than last week, so things weren't as good as I thought they were! Felt OK though!
