At least I don’t have any other explanations. Oleg dropped me off today at the park, where I ran on trails for 40 min and headed home on roads for 7.5M. The whole time, from the beginning, I felt tired and not excited, getting tighter as the run progressed. I came home, picked up my son and took him to the baseball practice, where while he played I ran around a track for another 10 miles. Yep, me, ‘round-n-round. Thank God for music! I couldn’t believe I am doing it, but figured it’s better than sitting and freezing and avoiding other mom’s talking (you can say I am not very kin of it). I thought of Rob and his “adventures” on local track with Y group. Besides, I needed a 20 miler, and running laps provided to be a good training for pacing - I kept it in 9s range, the way I’d like to run first 27 miles of AR50 on that flat stretch. My hip joints and hamstrings stood for about 6 of those miles before starting to scream at me. For a bit I thought I might be interested in doing 24 hr race on track, but then, as the pain settled in, decided against it. But it wasn’t too bad mentally as I was afraid of - the mind was numb and I was able to hear the words from the songs on my I-Pod - English been a second language, I usually catch only a few and just keep music on as a background. When I finally finished and went to the baseball field to wait last 5 min, I might have scared those moms with my stretching. May be now it’s safe to sit there - I don’t think they’ll ever want to talk to me:)
It seems my running had been dull and stale lately, and it’s either overtraining, too few races with their excitement, training alone all the time, busy mind with family stuff and problems, spring time, anticipation of the future move, worries about Alex and lack of progress there, or most likely all of the above. I even took Friday sick day (mental health would be a proper word) to try and recoup. I decided to do Chuckanut as a training run with no expectations, since I can’t concentrate on it anyway, and may be get myself together by American River 50. Too bad Rucky is cancelled - I really needed a get-away!
A Mountain Soul
12 comments:
Hi Olga, You have a great blog. Just keep it easy for a few days. I do not believe in overtrainig. You have enough experiece to prevent this. You have to look at the whole picture. Work - Life balance. Just listen to you body. In 2005, there was no balance for me eigher. I had a very bad "running year". I hope that in 2006 i will run marathons again. I guess that I will run more and talk less. I will visit your blog regularly to follow your runnig experiences. If you want some excting runs, you can also come to Europe?? Succes.
I think you named a few of the reasons my running seems to be a bit dull lately as well. I kind of wish I were doing Chuckanut, but the 24 hour will be a new experience.
Hey Olga,
I think you need a hug ;-) 10 miles on the track! that's alot, I'm sure I'd loose track of how many laps. Hang in there and keep it fun...
Olga....sounds like you need a good friend to just listen to you. Let it out in a safe place..you've got a lot going on and you need to vent it. Be kind to yourself, this is a good year to be very selfish. Figure out what really soothes you and treat yourself to it. Your strength of spirit will get you through it all.
Hopefully running becomes more of an excitement soon cuz I could sure use it. Get some good nights sleep tonight and tomorrow will be a whole better day. take care now..
I should be asleep like an hour ago but I'm still up cuz the little one is insisting on it, she had quite a "long" nap this afternoon and now she's wired thanks to her grandpa feeding her cookies!! :)
How do you manage to keep track on the number of laps in the track? Personally I am challenged to keep track if I run more than 2 of my 5 mile loops.
I bet you son's friends thought his mum is really cool, doing all this running and stretching while their own mothers just stood around chatting.
Yes, people around don't like sports people company, but definitely we aren't compatible.
Even they could thought you were showing of...
How well concentrated you certainly were to be round and round that not inspiring track.
Olga, Time to regroup! How about a rest/taper week? Give yourself some days off, run short and easy, drink lots of Starbucks. Maybe a little break will help.
I like backofpack's suggestion - starbucks! :)
Relax, take it easy. My thoughts tend toward overtraining...
I've had problems with motivation of late, also. Mix it up a bit...try something new. That helps me out, sometimes.
Ah yes... burnout... Gives us more time to blog, no?
I feel your pain... Though differently, I still feel it.
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