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Running for 10 years now has taught me a few things about fatigue. I have learned that my body always reaches a point that it needs a break. Days and weeks of training take their toll on my emotional and physical well being. I have come up with a few ideas of mine that will help you fight fatigue.

First and most often over looked is the importance of a good night's sleep. My own biggest source of fatigue is not getting 8 hours of sleep a night. Being an active person I can always think of something that I need to do. I try to stick to a scheduled time for bed. This can be difficult at times when life throws me a curve. I would say that 5 nights a week I stick to my schedule.

Second is the importance of eating right. Every time I start eating fast food and drinking beer my running performance suffers, plus I feel lousy all the time. I always start my day with a good breakfast of cereal or oatmeal. I enjoy eating fruit with my cereal and oatmeal. My favorites are bananas, strawberries and blueberries. For lunch I usually eat a sandwich and fresh vegetables. I enjoy tuna, ham, or roast beef. For dinner my wife who is an excellent cook prepares chicken breasts, tuna patties, spaghetti made with ground turkey. We will have vegetables or a salad with our dinner.

Third is the importance of recovery after working out. My usual workout will last an hour. On Sunday's I can be out running for up to 3 hours at a time. Every day after running I always make sure to rehydrate and eat something. I like to work out in the morning so I usually run before I eat. This makes recovery easier for me. First I always make sure to rehydrate before I sit down to eat breakfast. On the days when I run in the afternoon I will not eat lunch until afterwards. I usually eat a snack a couple hours before my afternoon run. Afterwards I rehydrate before eating lunch.

Fourth is the importance of taking recovery weeks. For many years I made the mistake of training hard week after week, month after month. I was always injured, grouchy and tired. When I tried reducing my workouts every third week my performances started going through the roof. I train hard for two weeks and on the third week reduce the number of days and the intensity in half. Following this pattern lead me to all of my personal records.

You can out smart fatigue as well by applying some of these suggestions to your own running program.