Sore Legs vs. Heavy Legs

[White Cookie]

A day or two (or three) after a hard workout or a long run, my legs get really sore, but not necessarily heavy. I can expect my legs to be sore due to hard efforts. When I go running with sore legs, I don't feel necessarily crappy, I just can't stride as much as usual because of decreased flexibility. In the mornings, and sometimes on random days, my legs are usually heavy. I definitely feel crappy when I run with heavy legs. So there is obviously a difference between sore and heavy legs.

In peaking for a race, following convention, I obviously avoid hard effort runs the days leading up to competition day to ensure that my legs are fresh. However, this doesn't guarantee that my legs won't be heavy for that day. The last time I tried peaking for a race I did a 10min LT maintenance run 3 days before, an easy 4 miler 2 days before, and a easy 3 miler the day before. In the morning of the race, my legs felt heavy. I'm thinking either the LT run was too much or I cut my mileage too much (I was running 40mpw on avg). Do heavy legs come about from lactic acid or is it from too little running? How do I ensure I don't get them the day of a race? It just seems like they come about randomly for me.

[BomberRunner]

way to make 3 of the same thread

[trakrunnerguy]

I think of heavy legs as rustiness and sore legs as muscle fatigue. I'm kinda like you in the sense that I get heavy legs when I take days off or taper down too much. edit: I find that an easy 4 and some strides the day before can ward off rustiness without getting me tired.

[Adam_Blue]

When you were peaking it might have been because your muscles were filled with a lot more glycogen. When that happens, your muscles absorb a little more water, so that could explain the heavy legs.

[White Cookie]

When you were peaking it might have been because your muscles were filled with a lot more glycogen. When that happens, your muscles absorb a little more water, so that could explain the heavy legs.

Oh... but isn't that a good thing to have more glycogen? I felt heavy during the warm-up and didn't feel good during the race. I like feeling loose, which happens more on random training days than when I try to for a specific day.

I'm running a 5k on sat and this is my mini-taper schedule:

T: warm-up, 2 mile tempo, cool-down (LT maintenance w/o, total 8 miles)
W: warm-up, 1 mile at 5k pace, cool-down (race pace w/o, total 8 miles)
Th: 6 miles recovery with strides
F: 4 miles recovery
S: race

I'm guessing I cut down too much last time and that was the problem so I'm doing a little bit more work leading up to the race.

[udcc11]

I prefer to do strides the day before, but the are usually just build ups, like 50 meters or so. These tend to make my legs feel loser and more ready run come the next day.

[JamesCXC]

Your body uses Glycogen when you go fast as the main fuel source, and when you go slow I believe it uses Fat.
The day before a meet we sometimes put our feet up on the wall; If your legs are heavy before a race try doing extra strides + Slow long warm up.

[ShuttleCock]

Try to get into an ice bath after a hard effort followed by a hot shower. Then do a shakeout run that night or the next morning, nothing too extreme, do like 3 at a slow comfortable pace followed by a good stretch. Your legs will thank you.

[10mexicans]

Nice...this thread answered so many questions for me.

Thanks to all that contributed.