Leg Fatigue

While training or racing many runners experience a phenomenon called leg fatigue. The symptoms usually include heavy feel in the legs, leg tiredness, and even soreness and ache. The usual causes of leg fatigue most often are overtraining and not getting enough time off between training and the race during the tapering period. One very important factor can be going back to your training schedule and revisit the intensity, length, and frequency of the runs. You have to answer the following questions: are you ramping up distance too fast? are you pushing yourself too hard and getting too little rest? Another tell-tell sign is the HR. Try tracking your HR and if you you calculate that you are doing more than 75% of your max you should scale back to something more manageable. If fatigue occurs during races you should increase the tapering period and try to better pace yourself come race day. Other suggestions include crosstraining, evaluating your diet, stress level, sleep quality etc. Often a good idea is starting with a week off so you can get your body time to recover.