Discussion: problem

blair, i think i know what the problem is -- it's irreversible and starts with A

Easy to blame everything on the A word. Doesnt sound good though Blair, i would be drinking a bit more, and maybe some sportdrink or flat coke on those long runs.

I'd say that you hadn't recovered from Wednesday-Thursday dehydration. If A stood for Alcohol I'd accept that as an excuse, but I was out in the heat Tuesday-Wednesday just doing low level bike riding exercise for a couple of hours each day which dehydrated me more than I expected. Both Fiona and I were really flat for Friday's Mountain to Surf. (30 deg and humid)
You may even have a mild viral infection - that's always a good excuse! Give it another week before you start worrying,

Maybe I'm just soft, but I would kinda expect that if in the last 6 weeks you've run on 15 days for at least 2 hours (or 1.58, to be precise), and on quite a few more for over 1 hour 30, that you might start feeling a tad fatigued, especially when you chuck in the recent weather. Maybe an easy/easier week wouldn't be too ridiculous an idea to entertain?

I have been pretty impressed with your mileage, though ;-)

take it easy blair

Sounds like the accumulated effects of dehydration. Although Sunday morning wasn't as hot as Saturday, it was still fairly warm, 25+, and also humid. 4kgs is a lot of water to lose in a couple of days. Mnay years ago John Oliver had a rule of thumb that once it gets above 25 you should think about cutting long training runs by 20%, and if it's over 30 then by 30%. Also if you can't get back to within a kg before the next run, then you need to reaccess if the weather is still hot. Also, if you are losing that much then you need something better than just water. Iso100 is worth a go in hot weather.
Not really very kind of hoggster to suggest that age might be catching up.

I think that's more or less my ultimate conclusion too. I've drunk about 6 litres since Sunday morning and not very much of it has come out the other end, which tells you something. With hindsight I probably never really recovered properly from the Wednesday night/Thursday morning combination, but didn't appreciate the situation because the usual indicators of persistent dehydration (e.g. strong-smelling urine) weren't present, not sure why. The week was also full of the sort of days which are easy to underestimate - not much radiant heat through cloud cover or being early in the morning, but that doesn't make a lot of difference to the amount of fluid you lose when it's mid- to high-20s.

Wednesday/Thursday this week will be just as hard (probably worse), but at least that will be it - the heat won't continue into the weekend. May still consider switching Thursday's run to Friday. I can be too bloody-minded for my own good about these things sometimes because I don't like to back out of a challenging situation.

At least tonight was pretty good....

Sometimes the Room of Mirrors can be quite enlightening can't it? :-)