It’s an easy week this week in our marathon training, and easy week = reflection time for me. Time to look back and examine the progress, time for a massage, time to reconnect with other stuff in my life besides running. Ok, there’s little else in my life that doesn’t revolve around running in some way.
But lately, running has become a chore. Or rather, the training has become a chore. I didn’t realize when we began this journey that training for a marathon was a marathon unto itself. 16 weeks, over the summer, and we’re still not done yet. In fact, the longest run still hasn’t happened yet. That’s another 2 weeks away. I think though, that the longest run is the biggest hurdle and hope that once that is done, things will be on a downward swing and not such a long drawn out process as we taper and near race day. It’s all a huge commitment.
Some things I’ve realized looking back on it all.
1 - Training for a full marathon over the summer really really sucks. It’s beyond brutally insane hot and humid. Saturday long runs take forever and leave me whipped the rest of the day. So my Saturdays are pretty much a right-off.
Getting up at 5 am on Saturdays to beat the heat is not fun as I have to get up this early during the week for work, so I never seem to get a chance to catch up on sleep.
I haven’t been out on the bike trails riding as I usually do in the summer. I think after the behemoth Saturday run, I have zero desire for anything physical the next day. I miss trail riding as its loads of fun.
Summertime the kids have soccer 4 nights a week and trying to squeeze in running 3 nights a week on top of that, I felt I was stretched too thin. Thankfully soccer is now done.
There doesn’t seem to be any relaxing during the summer either. On summer holidays I feel compelled to meet the training schedule and I don’t get to run whatever distance I feel like, or not run at all.
2 – I don’t think I was ready for this distance. I’ve always said that once I was able to run 25 km several times and feel good about it, then I would contemplate a full marathon. I haven’t been able to do this yet and during the high of successfully completing the Around the Bay 30 km race in March I signed us up.
3 – I’m feeling mentally exhausted. Physically I’m holding up ok, but I seem to have lost the joy of running. Now it seems to be all about “must get the run in, must meet the required distance on the schedule.” There’s little fun in running now. This has me worried, as once something becomes a chore for me, good luck trying to get me to do it.
4 – Leaving the kids alone as we run for hours on end is not fun for them or us.
(Ok, a part of me really enjoys time away from them, but sometimes its just way too long.)
So next time we do a marathon (yes, we will probably do more marathons) we’re thinking spring marathon vs. fall marathon, because training during the winter months I think would be easier all around for us.
For now though, time to make running fun again. I think I’ll run with dog on Thursday and we’ll explore a new route; something near the lake is always fun. Maybe I’ll even run naked!
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