Believe it or not, there are only four weeks left until race day. I have been going back and forth between feeling really prepared for my race, and feeling undertrained. I don’t know why, but I’ve been struggling with motivation and pre-race anxiety. I skip runs, and then convince myself that *that run* is going to break my entire plan, even though it’s just two rest days, or just a little shorter than it needed to be.
This weekend, I ran 20 miles through a rather hilly park. I met up with some fellow runners, and got very anxious about being too slow. I ran too fast to start, I didn’t speak up when I needed to slow down, and I let my pace get in my head. I finished sore, tired and frustrated. That was *not* the run I needed. I did love that I got to fit in a charity based 15k in the middle of the day. It was a very organized and well run race with a nice course through the park – I just spent too much of the morning in my head!
I woke up Sunday with every intention of running 10 road miles but when I got up to use the bathroom and had a hard time bending my knee, I immediately decided to go back to sleep and then felt guilty about it the rest of the day.
I don’t like training this way, and I don’t like feeling this way! I have been a little wishy-washy about my plan and my long run schedule. I started off using a marathon training plan but then I combined it with an ultra training plan and tried two long runs a weekend instead of my usual one. What have I learned over the course of this training? That I need recovery time after a long run.
Last week, I ran the Athens Half Marathon and had a really great day.
I still feel like my 50k is looming out there and that I won’t be ready for it, but I know that I am in decent shape and if I pace myself well, I can make it to the finish line.
Running makes me ____________! 