To completely understand the situation, you have to understand the concept of general adaptation. You have a baseline fitness, apply a stress, recover from the stress, then within a certain time frame, your baseline fitness increases assuming that cycle happens properly. Supercompensation is what the desired effect is. Keep following that progression and you're getting faster!
Here's what happens when you hit a plateau within steps:
Step 1: Do some training
Step 2: Recover a little bit
Step 3: Do some more training, thinking it will help
Step 4: Repeat steps 1-3 a few times with no results
Step 5: Get frustrated and do too much too fast or workouts are too hard
Step 6: Get slower or injured or both
Here's what it looks like on paper:
You are not quite getting past the recovery portion of the general adaptation cycle. You keep hitting the next hard workout at baseline fitness and never let the body fully recover from the damage done to it. Ideally, the next hard workout should happen at the point of supercompensation in which the body is at a new base of fitness and you don't keep taking dips. Anything harder will quickly drive your fitness lower and your frustration will go higher.
Steps to Bust Out of the Plateau
Now that you know where you sit on the spectrum of adaptation, you can feel better about working less to let the supercompensation happen. The difficult part is to recover enough, but not lose fitness in the process. Here are the steps to take when you feel as if your fitness hasn't been going anywhere for a while:
Step 1: Rest
Take a couple rest days. Two or 3 days off will not hurt your fitness. It will let the upswing happen if anything. You might feel a little rusty those first couple days, but generally you should feel pretty good.
Step 2: Rebuild a Mini Base
Start back with the Basics for 1 or 2 weeks. That means basic easy mileage, and basic speed. I'd suggest 50% of your previous mileage for the first week, 75% for the 2nd, and 100% for the 3rd week. It won't take long to start feeling like there's some pop in your step again and you didn't have to lose any fitness in the process. Just a temporary mileage reduction.
For a person that is mid-season, they can come back with some interval style workouts, but I would suggest doing half of what you were doing. For example, if you were doing 3 miles of interval work, just do 1.5 miles and call it a day! You'll maintain fitness while not overdoing yourself and pushing your body back into fatigue. You don't have to lose fitness at this point, and this can be used as a springboard into better fitness within just a week or two.
Step 3: Re-Build the Workouts
Progress your workouts every 2 weeks from baseline. Keep an eye on how you feel. If you feel sluggish for a workout, push it back another day until you feel good again. Feeling good is a sign that you've reached the supercompensation effect. Feeling poorly is often a sign that you need more recovery. Repeat steps 1 through 3 if you start feeling like you've hit another rough patch.
Step 4: Schedule Regular "Down Weeks"
Reduce mileage and workout intensity about every 3rd or 4th week to avoid stagnation. Cut your mileage by up to 20% and workout intensity should be kept to a minimum. It will help absorb the previous training and prep your legs for more intense stuff down the road. These can be seen as mini-tapers.
Summary
Do not make the mistake of doing more! Taking a step back doesn't mean you're losing fitness. Look at it as a springboard to better fitness.
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