What I do know is that I'm beginning to feel it's taking over my life.
And I'm not sure how this has happened.
I'm supposed to be doing this for fun!
The reality is my entire body is aching. I feel weighed down with a deep tiredness in every bone. I have developed a hacking cough, and worse of all, I'm spending nights ruminating about training when I desperately need to sleep to recover from all the training.
Am I doing too much? Too little? Is it okay to cross train rather than run? Is my diet okay? Am I drinking enough water? Do I need isotonic drinks? Should I be looking at recovery drinks? Am I going too fast on training runs? Too slow? What marathon time should I be looking at? Is it normal to be this tired? And so it goes on and on...
Looking at the past week's training. I don't think it differs greatly from what other people in my position will be doing. If anything, it's probably a little less...so why oh why do I seem to be the only one who's shattered?
Monday - circuits
Tuesday - rest
Wednesday - bootcamp
Thursday - intervals at track
Friday - three mile recovery run
Saturday - 12 mile run
Sunday - Dewsbury 10k
When I think rationally about it all, I realise that it's fear driving me on and the cause of the rumination. A worry that I won't be able to run all 26.2 miles or horror of horrors, I will be slower than last year. Non runners will think that I'm mad - surely just running a marathon is enough. Runners, I hope, will understand.
But I am aware that I do need to get a grip, or where will I be in nine weeks time? I'm not really going for a specific time, and I'm sure I'd be happy with last year's time.
So this week's ruminating will see me repeating 'I'm doing this for fun...I'm doing this for fun...". Any other ideas for relaxation would be most welcome!
A more sane me will return next week. And hopefully a less tired one.
Thats a lot of questions Sophie. I'd suggest that you're putting a whole lot of pressure on at the minute and with your training programme + busy working week, need a little bit more time to just relax and do stretching. I'd say that you'd benefit from vectoring in some stretching that you see as important as any training session and you can include the delightful foam roller and some abdominal breathing drills into this.
ReplyDeleteYou're very true in suggesting that fear is the force behind a lot of those questions. Ignore what other people do...it often seems like other people have a better routine or more structure etc but the fact is, they don't live your life and they aren't you so any comparison is pretty invalid.
If you're as tired as it sounds, more rest and recovery is going to serve you better. Regardless what any run-master tells you, the more rested and recovered your body is going into a 26 mile event, the better.
Sophie, Déjà vu, you sound like you have got to the same point as last year - remember? I can't remember how many weeks we were in but you came out the other side and had a brilliant time in Paris.....
ReplyDeleteJust discovered this blog, if you don't glean any useful info from it - smile : ) - I did at the ice baths part!
http://www.realbuzz.com/blogs/u/Sophie_Raworth/sophie-raworth-s-blog/
It's really good isn't it - I love the diagnosis of MAD (Marathoner's Anxiety Disorder). I have just self diagnosed!!
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