Why You’re Always ‘Medium Tired’—And the Weekly Training Schedule That Actually Works

Estimated read time: 4.1 minutes (about as long as it took me to lose to my grandma in pickleball this week). 😬

🧠 The Core Principle: Stack Your Stress, Not Your Fatigue

Most athletes make this mistake:

They spread out hard sessions across the week thinking they’re helping recovery. But what they’re really doing?

Creating low-grade, chronic fatigue.

That leaves you stuck in the "medium tired" zone—not fresh enough to crush key workouts, not stressed enough to trigger real adaptation.

The Fix: Stack your hard sessions.

This creates one big stress spike, followed by 48–72 hours for deep recovery and super-compensation

Trust the data:

• Frequent moderate stress = chronic fatigue, weak adaptation

• Strategic big stress + real rest = better strength and endurance gains

🔬 Fatigue Science 101

"Tired" isn’t just about needing a nap (though Augie’s on nap #3 today—no shame).

You’re dealing with three kinds of fatigue, each drains your performance like a slow leak:

1. Central (Brain-Body) Fatigue

• Caused by heavy lifts, VO2 max intervals, max effort sprints 

• Impairs muscle recruitment (how your brain fires up muscles)

• Needs 24–72 hours to reset 

2. Peripheral (Muscle-Level) Fatigue

• Caused by:

  • Glycogen depletion from long runs, fast-finish efforts, and extremely high-rep lifting (refills in 1–2 days)

  • Metabolic by-products from high-intensity intervals or high rep lifts (clears fast)

  • Muscle damage/soreness from eccentric-heavy work like downhills, RDLs, and high-volume speed work (lingers the longest)

• Takes 24–72+ hours depending on damage

3. Systemic (Life Load) Fatigue

• Sleep, stress, life chaos

• You can’t out-train it

Smart training respects all 3.

🔎 Find Your "Recovery Killer" Workouts

These are the sneaky sessions that bury you with muscle damage.

Identify them. Build around them.

🏃‍♂️ High-Fatigue Running Sessions

• Speed + Volume: Long intervals in Zone 4–5 (e.g. 6xmile repeats or long tempos)

• Downhill Running: Brutal eccentric load—your muscles lengthen under tension while braking.

  • Research shows eccentric contractions cause more muscle damage than any other type of movement.

• Fast-Finish Long Runs: Glycogen depletion + muscle damage from speed and distance = potent combo

🏋️ High-Fatigue Lifting

• Heavy Lower Body Days: Squats, deadlifts, lunges (massive muscle recruitment + high neural demand)

• High Volume Near Failure: 3–4 sets of 8–15 reps, close to failure = muscle damage

• Eccentric Focus: Movements that load muscles while lengthening = more damage.

  • RDLs, Nordics, Squat Negatives → high eccentric stress.

  • Downhills and speed work → same mechanism, high muscle breakdown.

  • Eccentric = controlled destruction → massive adaptation if recovery follows.

👉 Label these as Tier 1 Stressors. Your whole week revolves around them.

⚡ Fine-Tune Your Hard Days

Golden Rule: Separate hard sessions by 6+ hours (when possible).

But hey—getting it done still beats skipping it (unless you're Augie, then skipping means nap #4).

Split AM/PM and you’ll:

• Perform better in both

• Prevent session one from stealing session two’s power

• Squeeze more gains from the same workload

🧩 Run First or Lift First?

• Run First = prioritize endurance

• Lift First = prioritize strength

• Choose based on your goal

🔧 Build Your Week Around Tier 1s

1. Identify Tier 1 Stressors

2. Place them early in the week or before rest blocks

3. Follow each with 48–72 hours of low-stress recovery

Think of Tier 1 days as anchors. The rest of the week wraps around them.

📆 Sample Weekly Templates

🏃‍♂️ Runner Who Lifts (Endurance Priority)

• AM: Speed, VO2 max or Threshold / Tempo Run

• PM: Heavy Leg Lift

• Recovery days: easy runs + upper body

🏋️ Lifter Who Runs (Strength Priority)

• AM: Heavy Lower Body Lift (after a full rest day)

• PM or Next Day: Zone 2 Run for active recovery

• 48+ Hours Later: Tempo or Threshold Run

• Upper Body Lift: Slot between leg days or fast runs to give your legs a break
  Second Leg Day: At least 48 hours after first leg day or tempo/track session

• Other Runs: Keep mostly Zone 2 to support endurance without draining strength

Remember: Templates are guidelines. Recovery signals > rigid schedules.

🎯 Practical Summary:

• 🔥 Stack hard sessions into 1–2 Tier 1 days

• 🔍 Use speed, volume & muscle mass to ID toughest sessions

• ⏱ Leave 6+ hours between hard run/lift on same day

• 🌍 Follow Tier 1 days with 48–72 hours recovery

• 🧰 Build your week backwards from the big stressors

💬 One last thing before you go.

After the NFL, I wasn’t sure if obsessing over performance science still mattered—until I started helping this community.

Your training goals? They brought that fire back.

So if you're feeling stuck, second-guessing something, or just want to share how training's going—hit reply. I read every message, and I’m here to help however I can.

🚨 99% OF RUNNERS ARE GETTING ZONE 2 WRONG

Did you miss my post about 99% OF RUNNERS ARE GETTING ZONE 2 WRONG? You can find it below!

I won’t lie. These posts take me a while to make. If you find it helpful, share it on your story or with a friend. It helps me a ton!

Don’t forget: You + Science = AWESOMENESS 😎

Yours in science,

Jonah

Please email me directly if you’re interested in references for this week!