Friday, September 10, 2010

Burnout?


I was talking to Brian last night about running and training. Basically, I'm feeling burned out and bored with running, the music I listen to when I run, the routes I run, the treadmill, etc. But I know that if I take a break from it, I would regress and that, frankly, would annoy me more than the boredom.

The past couple of nights I've run 5 miles (each night) at the gym. Don't get me wrong, I feel great afterward, and 5 miles has become pretty much my standard run in addition to a long run once a week. I've gotten up to 7, 8, 9, 10 miles on these long runs, which leaves me no where left to go but the 13.1-mile half-marathon distance, which I'd like to try for in the near future (when I have the time). But the race isn't until February, so that would be 5 or so months of maintaining and trying not to get injured.

Why did I start training so early? Well, because I didn't think I could actually do it. Yup, I underestimated my abilities and thought it would take me much longer to achieve the 10-mile distance (which was the last long run that was to be run a week before the race). Now, the thought of all this running for the next 5 months makes me feel mentally tired.

Will I give up the training? Absolutely not! I'm going finish what I started! I have yet to run 13 miles! But maybe I'll stall a little and run 5 miles a couple of times a week and maybe 6 miles for a long run for a few weeks just so it stops feeling so tedious. Then when it's closer to the race, I'll start upping my mileage again. Besides, all this running is wreaking havoc on my system and messing up my internal clocks, if you know what I mean. Maybe I'll devote more time to cross-training and weights. Maybe I'll mix it up a little.

Anyway, as I write this I'm already thinking of running a super long run tomorrow morning.. Part of me feels obsessed with it and part of me wants to run a 5 K and call it a day. Talk about torn!

I wish I could take a couple of weeks off and go back to going to Jazzercise or Zumba or kickboxing and not run at all, but I honestly think it would drive me insane. I would constantly be worried about losing endurance. Crazy obsessed worried about it. If any runners are out there reading this, any advice?

Deedah

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am very injury prone and without cross-training and strength training properly; I wouldn't be able to run and train for my half marathon!

Last year I wasn't as good about it and had a fair amount of hip and knee pain while training for my first half marathon.

This year I have been more consistent with cardio cross-training (spin 1-2x week) and strength training (20 min 2x week) and I have had no pain!

You do have a fair amount of time before your race and I can totally understand feeling a bit burnt out on running so I definitely recommend switching things up for a bit while still running a couple times a week! Good luck!

Mark on September 10, 2010 at 3:53 PM said...

For me, running is incredibly boring. To keep it interesting I create new mixes to listen to. If I listen to the same music over and over, the boredom gets to me and I struggle. Fresh music helps to distract me from the running.

My advice? Shuffle up some new tunes :)

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