I’m currently just getting over my marathon midlife crisis. I’m not injured and no I’m not having any serious problems in life (running is great but doesn’t define me) . To say I’m having a running marathon crisis, unsure of myself, my training and everything about this damn marathon is an understatement.
I tweeted last week sometime that I was psyching myself out for the marathon. No apparent reason, I just began to question everything about my training. I cannot even fathom running a 20 mile run right now, let alone 26.2. A goal pace hovering around 7 minutes? (3:05-3:10). It was enough to make me wonder what I’m doing.
Thank goodness Victoria (who competed in 140.6 last weekend…one the most kickass bloggers and people out there…). Anyways thank goodness Victoria sent me this truly inspirational video:
Thank goodness we have the same sense of humor.
It has blown my mind how quickly this summer has gone and I don’t think it helped with the marathon having a daily countdown on the NYC marathon facebook page. Every single day it ticks a number off. Every single day I see the marathon is getting closer. I do agree it is motivating and exciting some days but other days, I sit here in a tizzy questioning what did I get myself into. It is just hard to escape the thoughts lingering of am I good enough? I do believe that anything you are doing for the first time, it will be hard to escape these thoughts. On the same level, training for anything you are bound to question yourself once, twice or ten times.
I think a lot of people come across this problem in anything they do. It’s a typical midlife burnout.
The middle of a semester of school.
The middle of summer when you are working.
Or the middle of summer when you are training and it’s 100.
The middle of winter when it’s -30.
The point is in anything you do you won’t have 100% sunshine and butterflies.
I know that I’m being productive with my training and doing what I’m supposed to be doing but this is still my first marathon and I’ll be the first to say I’m completely outside of my comfort zone. Although this post seems negative or that I need to be coddled and walked through every single step, it’s not. It’s just my thoughts thus far on training. Maybe I need reassurance to know my training is going well. Maybe I need to realize that the heat takes a toll on training and every run will never feel great. Either way I feel a bit better now that I can be honest with myself. I will make it through this brief midtraining crisis (whatever that means) and cross the finish line strong and healthy.
After using this week (9 weeks until the marathon) as a step down, lower mileage week I feel a little less in my rut. Am I still nervous for the race? Of course, but if I wasn’t I would be in my comfort zone.
Questions for you:
Do you ever get a midtraining (or anything) burnout?