For me part of it is how I take care of my non-running needs: Sleep, Hydration, Proper Nutrition and booze or lack there of. But even when I am doing all that I sometimes hit a tough 2-3 month stretch. Sometimes its as much mental - After I knew I was not going to be able to do Monkey last year ~ I imploded and didn't care about anything.
For me part of it is how I take care of my non-running needs: Sleep, Hydration, Proper Nutrition and booze or lack there of. But even when I am doing all that I sometimes hit a tough 2-3 month stretch.
Sometimes its as much mental - After I knew I was not going to be able to do Monkey last year ~ I imploded and didn't care about anything.
It's interesting you bring this up. I've been doing a fair amount of thinking about the mental piece of this equation this week. This isn't the place for me to go into my whole cancer history (at least not when I'm sober) but I think that this has much more to do with all of the above then it does overtraining per se. My sleep has been whacked, I haven't been as vigilant about my eating (was a vegan when going through treatment), I've also definitely been drinking more than I used to and all of this is related. I now have 3 quarterly clean pet scans under my belt and I have definitely let my focus shift from getting well/staying well with super clean living to well, not-so-clean lving and still trying to maintain a 50 mile a week running regime. I also went from working minimally when ill to now working full time doing a variety of different things and it definitely makes a difference with what I have left for energy at the end of the day.
Long way of saying... I'm still gonna run Pinelands but will do it to just finish and not push it. Running saved & brought me back me when I was really sick and I never want to forget what I love about it.
Do not feel bad about letting there be seasons to your running - I always go lighter and not as focussed in Dec - Jan, letting me be ready and raring to go Feb - May.
I seem to do different things different times of year. I grind slow miles in Feb & Mar and really look forward to start trail running in April-May. Then usually Jun-Aug is more of a speed focus while ramping down miles and still running trails. Fall is usally a nice trail race and marathon, then I ramp back down after Monkey.
I could not do the same thing and have the same focus week after week,
Congratulations on the 3 cleans - I pray for the 5 year - 10 year and beyond - Good stuff.
I just need to control what I can control - Putting my body in the best possible position to recover from training - Beer is evil. Happy hour tonight ~ 1 7-up, 1 Diet Coke, 1 glass of h20 ~ yeah me.
Long dead ... But my stench lingers !
Thanks for the kind words. This is all unchartered territory for me. I started running in 2008 and ran my first race at a 1/2 marathon. 2009, I committed to run my first marathon as my second race ever. Three weeks later I was diagnosed with late stage III cancer for the 3rd time in 20 years. 2010 brought yet more rough news when they realized we hadn't gotten it all and I was looking at another winter and round of treatment. When I registered for my 2nd marathon, MMC, I was still going through treatment. So, you can kinda see how I don't even know what I don't know about all of this... It's great for me to hear though that running, too has it's seasons. It will certainly make it easier to be easier on me when I'm just not feeling it.