How tired should I be after running?

When you are training hard, there are number of processes happening in
your body that might cause you to feel extra tired. They are:
1) Restoration of your body’s fuel stores
2) Repairs to damage done during workouts
3) Changes to your body brought on in response to the workout itself.

All of these things together are part of the process of recovery. And lead you to be tired.

Once you’ve completed your run, your body responds by making changes to make you better able to handle your next run. This is how we improve over time. We workout, then the body responds. By going longer and harder in our workouts, we can run longer or harder still the next time we try.

But it takes some time for these changes to take effect.

During this, the body is busy with its recovery. And we need to make sure that we’re recovering properly before starting our next run. If we push ourselves through another workout before we’re recovered, what happens? We have a terrible workout. Pain and suffering without benefit. No Improvement.

Now it might take only a day for a runner to recover from a hard workout and be ready to go again for another one. But it also might take most runners two weeks to recover from a 20 mile run. That’s why it is very important to carefully manage your workout and to space out those long runs in particular. Remember, as I've said earlier, the older you are, the more rest days needed to recover. So you use those days to help spread out the workouts and speed recover for the next run.

Also remember, you need to eat. You've depleted your reserves. You need to ear and replenish those food stores. If you don't, you will find yourself again having a slow difficult run, heedless of how long you've rested.

So....
1) Take plenty of time between workouts to recover
2) Eat and drink to replenish fuel stores
3) If you need to sleep, sleep. I listen to my body, and sleep whenever it wants
4) Vary your workouts between different types of activities to give
yourself more time to recover, and to exercise different muscle groups
5) Stick to your rest days


Being tired is no big deal, as I am often tired and run in a fatigued state. But you need to also listen to your body. I you need rest and food, take it. If you need a day off, take it. You don't want to run through your fatigue and end up derailing your training.

Pain and suffering is all well and good, but listen to yourself. Fatigue is a desert to be crossed, but only if survivable.

Ciao. See you on the roads.


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