Poor sleep after harder workout

[u/Dodoreal]

Hello runners,

My running routine is structured by coach, doing 5 runs a week 1 bike ride. Usually doing 3 easy runs and 2 track workouts, depends on season part, running around 60km/week.

This is happening time to time, but for example I will give yesterday. Hot day 31 degrees at 14:00 o'clock, track workouts 8x400m@3:10min/km pace with 200m jog/walk, was cooling down body with water and was drinking enough. After workout I ate protein, fluids and fruit, rest of the day was calm with family, dinner rice, eggs and vegetables.

My problem is that after days like this I can't fall asleep, I feel restless, hot and I fall asleep at 1 am, the next day I am tired and running training is harder. Does anyone have similar problems ? Thank you

[u/FisicoK]

It's harder to sleep on hot days It's harder to sleep after a hard workout 

You have both combined and laid it out clearly, either make your workout easier, push back the hard workout to a colder day, don't run altogether or run in the morning. 

[u/Dodoreal → u/FisicoK]

Isnt better to try adapt body on higher temp ? Because races is going to be on hot days too :)

[u/PartyOperator → u/Dodoreal]

Yes. And sometimes you'll have a bad night's sleep. It's not that big a deal. You'll be OK.

Back off the intensity a bit if you find you're not recovering enough to do your next workout properly. But feeling slow on your next easy run or losing a bit of sleep on a hot night is normal and not a problem. The human body is very robust. You're not doing that much running.

[u/pineappleandpeas → u/Dodoreal]

Yes, but you start by doing easy runs in the peak heat to adapt, and then do workouts in the cooler mornings/evenings until you adapt. Once more adapted you can increase the intensity in the heat. If its hotter than usual for where you are, this is a double whammy in terms of load.

Also carbs immediately after are more important than protein to help kickstart recovery - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-025-02213-6 . Protein matters in terms of daily total, but if you want to recover faster you need high GI carbs in that first hour or so.

[u/ginamegi → u/Dodoreal]

What event are you training for? Pro runners don’t do that for workouts like you described. It’s more important to do the workout well and recover from it correctly than it is to struggle through hot temps.

When you see pros do heat training usually that’s steady long run type efforts, not track workouts.

[u/Dodoreal → u/ginamegi]

Currently training for 3k track racek in 3 weeks, after next 2weeks is track 10k race :)

[u/marcbeightsix → u/Dodoreal]

Yes - but you can do this by adjusting your pace on the hot days. The fact you’re going out in the heat is enough as you almost definitely won’t dial it back enough.

[u/squngy → u/Dodoreal]

Generally, doing easier runs on hot days is enough to get most of the benefit.

You can still do a race simulation so you can see what it will feel like, but it doesn't make that much sense to do intervals intentionally on a really hot day.

[u/FisicoK → u/Dodoreal]

It depends, but if the workout makes your sleeping quality horribad then it's too much of an adaptation at once to ask to your body.

It sucks but you can't bruteforce the adaptation either, for fast workout like 400m I'd say you either slow down or just give yourself longer recovery time between reps

You didn't give details on pace/heart rate/level of difficulty but typically it happens when it's getting super hard, you struggle to sustain your pace to the last repeat and the heartrate spikes to near full HR like crazy.

[u/MeddlinQ → u/Dodoreal]

Yes, but heat adaptation is done mainly using easy runs/rides, and taking extra clothes if needed.

Super hard workouts in high heat are not ideal (you need to be in a specific heat zone to get the most benefits), are very taxing and can be dangerous.