My Motivation Walked the Plank

Motivation hit an all time low kids.  It wasn’t pretty.  Just like the face, yarrrrr….

Well, I have motivation.  But sadly, it’s to curl up and die and hibernate for a week (Nov 16th, I’m looking at you, kid).  I have gotten a taste of what it is to have a social life after 70.3 training and don’t want to give it up.  Marathon training may not take as many hours but I can’t just trade those extra non-training hours for patio drinky time.  I need SO MUCH MORE SLEEP increasing my running volume it’s crazy.  I can get in the pool and on the bike and pound out tired miles np but running really takes effort and focus for me.  If I could just be content to run and eat and sleep it would be perfect.  But, there is worky bits and fun bits and errand bits and cleaning bits (amazing, being home to do more than deposit dirty tri gear and pick up clean stuff makes me actually care that my house is a complete disaster) and coupled with the fact that my eating and sleeping have not been completely normal since getting back from the epic vacation of epic-ness, it’s not helping me be 100% bad ass.

Banking on the endurance I’ve built from tri season to accomplish some fall running goals in a way that makes me feel like a training cycle cheater is something I’ve done for 3 years now.  Year 1, I was so damned burnt out after my first Olympic that I kept on and on that I regretted signing up for the race and wah de wah wah, and then went out and PR’d the shit out of my half marathon by 7 minutes.  Year 2, I trained up for a half, got sick and it rained so it got cancelled, had a bunch of pent up race energy so I raced all winter and never really did great, but also figured out how to not race a race and kept my endurance in the “I can run 13 miles on a whim” category.  Year 3 is this year, and since Olympic to 13.1 went so well, I figured doubling it would be NBD.  Y’know, 3 real weeks to train for a marathon before taper and stuff.  Jury is still out on whether this was a splendid idea or not.  I’ll get back to you about noon on Nov 11th.

However, pretty much every year, I hit this LOW right around now.  I regret signing up for fall races.  I rue that it’s not off season.  I want to sleep in.  I want to take stupid zumba or ice skate or yoga or swim, or ride my bike as long or as short as I feel like it.  I don’t want to be a runner anymore.  If only I could just go swim in Lake Pfugerville instead of another stupid goddamn run.  Couple this with sort of forgetting to take an off-season last year and racing through it and a pretty crazy (cool but crazy) life this year outside of training and racing- I am suffering from a case of the crispies.  It’s making me want to walk the plank, mateys.

Couple this with coming off the high of my first 20 miler, kinda feeling like “ok, I’m ready, let’s run this marathon” and getting smacked in the face with the reality that I still have another month, and I still have lots of running to do, and a DISASTROUS long run on Sunday, does not a sunny Quix make.  I haven’t had my head so far out of the game since the appearance of “Quix is not impressed” at Jack’s Generic after  the epic burnout bike week of 2012.  I cut what was supposed to be an upper double digit long run to 15 before I started, and then walked home defeated at 11 (and I was a long way from there, so 12.6 miles total) because I had no run left in me.  I can make any excuse I want about what other problems were going on (although being on 400+ mile shoes was valid and something I rectified later that day), but it was really my head.  I was in a run-mopey mood the rest of the day (only to be cured with beer and bbq), and the next day I was Jack’s (generic?) Utter Lack of Motivation to do anything.  Yesterday I woke up feeling just as blah but forced myself to get my ass out and apparently the only cure for the blahs is a great 5 miler in new shooz.  I’m not all better but I don’t want to throw my Asics in the trash anymore.

Things that do not make me want to give up my runner card:

1. Actually having some decent runs at semi-decent paces once I get my ass out there.  It’s nice to see 9s and 10s on shorter runs little more often than not.  Gives me hope that I may not run my worst 5k ever this weekend (NOT hoping to PR, just would like to beat last years similarly horrible time on this course).  Along these lines, runs with our new work lunch run club.  Running with faster boys to chase down makes for a bit more speed.
2. Actually having some beautiful weather for runs.  I live for cloudy, 60-70, and a little humid/drizzly on a run.  And that’s the majority of what we are getting.
3. Counting down the runs.  I have 9 more runs until the marathon, after which I can do nothing for 6 weeks if I so choose.
4. Sleeping as much as humanly possible and trying to keep the patio drinking to a minimum.
5. Riding my bike REALLY FAST when I get a chance to do so.

So here I am, having hit the high, the low, and now I’m somewhere in the middle.  I’ll take it.

Going forward, I have set Saturday as my last key day.  I’m going to run a (butt-ass-early) 10k around my neighborhood at EZ pace, I’m racing the fuck out of a 5k, and then I’m coming home to run another 10k at marathon pace.  After the earlier thrashing, holding 11:30s is going to be HARD, but should be a simulation on how I’ll be feeling at the end.

Beyond that, I have approximately 45 other miles to run in the next 2.5 weeks whenever I can get around to it, preferably before Nov 9th so I have a nice 2 day rest, and preferably not too many in one day (read: taper).  The only double digits I’m really hoping to rock are double digits on the hours of sleep per day.

And actually, I’m learning a lot.  Running multiple days in a row, once I got used to it, ain’t so bad.  Running doubles isn’t either and a way to pile on the miles a bit more without getting up at ridiculous o’clock.  It’s not a waste to do a few shorter runs back to back instead of longer and continuous ones.  I fear that I’m probably going to stop hating this run volume and have figured it out and be kinda loving it just in time for taper.  Figures.

If this post is incredibly disjointed, that’s where my head is this week.  Please enjoy some fabulously drunken and costumed pictures of us at our Company Launch/Costume party. Yarr!  So much fun.  I have one more party to go next weekend to so expect more sassy pictures as the sexy pirate wench soon.

Last Week

Monday: 4 mile shakeout – 43 mins
Tuesday: 5 mile before work – 62 mins (sloooow), walk .55 – 9 mins.  Lunch club run – 3.27 in 35 mins
Wednesday: off.  Leggies and brain needed a break
Thursday: 3.1 miles in 30 mins lunch club run.  15.1 miles on trainer in 41 mins on trainer at home.
Friday: off (lots of dancing)
Saturday: off (lots of couch sitting)
Sunday: ~11 miles real running (2:05), 1.6 miles defeated walk home (37 mins), .5 miles treadmill running for new shooz (~5 mins)

This Week

Monday: princess brat went to sleep instead
Tuesday: 4.5 miles in 48:50 of happy rejuvination.  20 speedy trainer miles in 48 mins.
Wednesday: 3 miles.  Was going to either run 2 more or bike agan too but life intervened.
Thursday: 9 miles – combo of before work and at lunch.  Maybe some trainer love.
Friday: off
Saturday: 10k warmup, 5k race, 10k MP
Sunday: off

Next week goals:

More attention on what goes in the cakehole.

A little less of this….

And a little more zzzzz….