Keeping it Fun

Its been almost a month since my big marathon and I feel like I am mentally much better than I was after my first.  Physically - not so much.  I feel tired.  I have been enjoying my runs and had some decent times.  But on most of the runs I've been doing lately the effort I've been putting in doesn't equal the time and the distance I'm covering.  

Last Saturday morning was no exception.  I left with my group for 15k.  I kept pace with Simon and Rick for the first 5k and felt pretty crappy doing it.  By 6k I was dizzy and needed to turn around.  I think I walked a total of 4k of my run.  It was a little warm, but not too bad.  I had eaten and had plenty of fluids before and during so I don't know what my problem was.  Needless to say, my body had had enough and was refusing to go.


I know sometimes I push myself and expect too much too soon.  But I have had so many runs where I start off feeling terrible.  If I ignore those feelings of wanting to quit I can often get past that terrible feeling and end up having a fabulous run.  I'm really torn at the moment at how or where to take my training.  Do I give in for a bit more time, take it easy or try to push past it and work toward my goals I've set?

Through blogging about my past races and thinking about my training maybe I should do the opposite of what I normally do.  I used to tell myself the definition of Stupidity (Doing the same thing and expecting a different result) when I couldn't figure out my kids sleeping patterns when they were babies.  Perhaps that is just what I will do.  I used to do different activities that I loved  prior to starting to run.  And not that I would ever give up running at this point in my life.  The one thing I learned after my marathon was how addicted to my running endorphins I am.  But maybe my focus should be to enjoy other activities and moving my body in different ways besides the repetitive motions of running.

I would also still like to focus on getting some speed back.  I can't completely let go of the goals I set for myself earlier.  I still feel like I have a 22 minute 5k in me.  When I think back to my mind set last year when I set my pb in a 5k I knew I could do it.  But now I get the sense I'm over analyzing it and need to chill out and enjoy running.

That being said here is my next race....

http://www.warriordash.com/register2011_ontario.php 

Some of the people I run with have put a group together and we are all running this race starting and finishing as a group.  And because we are all a little crazy and the race on its own isn't enough... we're dressing up.  Snow White and the dwarfs (there may be more than 7).  I am the Evil Queen.... how suiting.