Constant Burning

Part into my second week of specific training. The overall load is manageable, but is hard. With a long run, two anaerobic threshold session, a VO2max run plus some speed work and strength training per cycle there is obviously limited opportunity to fully recover between sessions. As a result I am now carrying around some low grade, but persistent fatigue. After my threshold intervals I find that my legs feel like they are burning for the rest of the day.

This is always the training phase of biggest conflict. Where I want to be able to run fast, but due to the workload, that extra spring in the legs has been lost. It feels so good knowing you are putting in a big effort, but at the same time kicking back on the couch has a big appeal to it.

Luckily my love of running wins out, and I keep pushing myself to complete the sessions despite my brain throwing up plenty of excuses to pull the plug early. As a result I seem to be experiencing the runner's high on more runs. It isn't always the pleasant euphoria that I usually get on the easy, but long runs. It is more of a happy dysphoria, that alters my sense of reality where I become absorbed just by the act of running. In this state, inducing a certain level of pain seems to be the goal. It is the prolonged pain of sustained, relatively fast running that is the trigger. Maybe it is the assorted endorphins and other substances cycling through my blood stream, maybe it is a lowering of my blood glucose level, maybe my brain just isn't working properly anymore. Whatever the case, this kind of running is addictive.