Tag Archive | marathons

Things are getting less scary

Aug26

This past weekend I ran 18 miles. That was by far the longest run I have done. At least the farthest I have done on a training run. In my first attempt at the marathon, I made it just past mile 21. In any event, the 18 miles actually felt pretty good. This was kind of surprising to me considering that the week prior, I had 17 miles to run and the entire week leading up to the 17 miles, I was freaking out about how far I was going to have to run.

I chose not to do the 17 miles with my pace group for various reasons and it turned out I did alright. Although, I did have to adjust where I ran because the Air & Water Show was happening so I couldn’t run as far south as I normally would have. Anyway, that run was almost my best long run of the year except around mile 10, I started to get a weird pain in my calf near my knee.  Continue reading →

Athletes, Burnout and Routine Shake ups

Jul13

20130711-091537.jpgBefore I started marathon training, I had been taking a number of rest days. Part of me knows that was completely reasonable to do. Especially since I had run a half marathon and a 10 mile race within six days of each other. During the weeks of the taper leading up to my half, I started to get sick. That would explain my half not being the absolute best and why I ended up missing my time goal.

Anyway, Shortly after the 10 mile race, I ended up taking consecutive days off from working out. And I realized I was starting to get burned out from working out. Yes, I took days off, but then to get back at it seemed like such a chore. I tried to run a couple of times and each time, all I could muster was a mile. It felt so pathetic. Pathetic because I was the person who had gone over 450+ days straight of doing something, whether it was easy yoga or an intense weight class to leisurely runs. I talked about this revelation with my trainer and she said, well part of it is because I am now an athlete. Athletes have to and do take breaks. To prevent injuries and so as not to start hating what they do. Continue reading →