Struggling at the Moment (Read 427 times)

I have been running now for almost two years. I started in August 2012. I ran my first marathon last October and finished a disappointing 4:09. At that point I decided I to either continue to running with a goal of qualifying for Boston in the next couple of years or quit. So over the winter I started running a lot harder and dropped my time average time per mile from above 9:00/mile to low 8:00/mile with a lot more miles well below 8:00/mile. As well I was running a lot more miles (high 40s per week.) But I have been really struggling the last few weeks. Mostly because I have a lot of crap (and stress) going on in the rest of my life at the moment. Right now it is a struggle just to get out the door on a daily basis. And if I do make it out the door I am exhausted from the rest of the day. So whereas 6 miles should be a piece of cake for me, its a struggle at the moment to get past 3 or 4 miles.  I am registered to run the Chicago Marathon in October, but getting really worried as the marathon is 19 weeks away, and I am suppose to be going into my peak training phase. I am suppose to do a long run tomorrow of 14-15 miles, but I am just hoping I make it 10 miles.  I must confess this past week I thought of quitting more then once, but I don't want to throw 2 years of hard work away. Any advice?? Thanks.

Get your hemoglobin checked. Make sure you're not anemic.

Stress can be the absolute worse thing for one's well being. It is very unhealthy when the individual has too much of it. Most of us use running as a stress relief. IMO, if this isn't working for you, then I see 2 options. First, do as others have mentioned and reduce the stress if possible. Second, you could be putting too much upon yourself with the higher volume of faster runs. Drop the pace back for a couple of weeks to see if your general fatigue goes away.

I agree, if life is stressing you out right now and running is hard, then back off your pace and just do easy miles for a couple of weeks until you feel better. Pushing so hard with increasing pace AND mileage is hard to maintain for to long. back off and cut yourself a break!

having goals definitely helps as well.   of course I have the goal of continuing to give myself the opportunities to at least challenge PR times & AG placings.  but main goal is to continue streak of 100+ miles/month & maintain current weight & overall fitness.  streak is at 59 consecutive months & June will be 5 years straight.   so setting overall goals & also lower level long term or short term goals is very helpful.  good luck & keep moving forward one step at a time!

You are running way too fast and are fatigued. You need a week off, don't quit, just a vacation. Then pick running back up slowly. Follow a marathon recovery program. Perhaps something like, week 1- 20 miles, week 2-30 miles, week 3-40 miles. Then follow a good training program like a Pfitzinger plan that mixes long or fast and hard with truly easy and short days.

 

I don't know your age (I'm 53 on only been running 18 months), but my 1/2 marathon time is 40 seconds per mile faster than yours, yet you are running your "easy" runs a good 40-60 seconds faster than me (and I think I often run mine too fast). Your 1/2 marathon pace is 8:36 and yet you have have a so-called recovery run at 8:37 pace. Where's the fire?  Nearly all your runs are faster than your marathon pace. You even have easy runs 20 seconds per mile faster than your 1/2 pace. Basically, all your weekly mileage has been racing. It's a wonder you haven't had a stress fracture or blown up in some other way.

 

I suggest:

 

1-Take a week off, then slowly come back as above.

2-After the above rest, and a week of VERY EASY running, run a 5k, 10k, or 1/2 as you need a more recent race to set your paces.

3-Use a McMillian pace calculator or one from Runner's world to find your paces. Don't run always at the fast end of the range.

4-Follow a Hard, easy, hard, easy, easy, hard, easy kind of schedule. The easy days need to be much easier than you've been running and the hard days hard. You need some real recovery pace runs (think 9:40 to 10:10 pace) after intervals and tempo runs. You can't run recovery runs too slowly - they are just time on the feet.

This looks like a pretty good analysis.

While having goals can be motivating and helpful, if your only goal is to BQ in 2 years or you will quit then you are going to have a rough go of it.  Running can have its ups and downs.  Sometimes the goal will seem within reach, sometimes it may seem a far off dream.  But if that goal is the only thing motivating you...and you put a relatively short horizon on achieving it with the decision to quit of you don't think you'll get it...it's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophesy.

I see nothing wrong with wanting to run Boston, but I have a hard time connecting with the desire to just quit if you don't get there or perhaps the day after running victoriously down Boylston Streen.  Running is such a positive thing in a person's life.  I'd recommend you really think over why you are running.  If you really enjoy running, expand your reason for running beyond BQ and enjoy the process.  Because some days it will suck and if you don't enjoy the days that don't either you will not make it.  If your only reason for putting 2 years of effort in is to run Boston then you have better desire to focus on a single event than me.

Right now it is a struggle just to get out the door on a daily basis. And if I do make it out the door I am exhausted from the rest of the day. So whereas 6 miles should be a piece of cake for me, its a struggle at the moment to get past 3 or 4 miles. 

This is a classic description of overtraining.  The only cure is rest.  Take a week completely off, then start back slowly.  You have speed, you now need to build endurance.

Your marathon pace is 9:30 MPM.  Most of your training runs should be slower than that.  Try recovery runs at about 11:00 MPM, long runs at about 10:30 MPM.  And tempo runs at about 8:30 MPM for the tempo portion.

There are lots of wise words above.  I would just add that something like 90% of runners don't qualify for Boston, yet they have plenty of good reasons to run.  Enjoy your running, enjoy your resulting fitness!