- I’m now at the phase where I’m hungry ALL THE TIME.
- The thought of running 20 miles now no longer scares me. The very first time I tried to run 20 miles, I found it very daunting. Now it’s just another training run on my plan.
- It’s clear that my body is not meant for long distances, like the marathon. I feel a sense of accomplishment and a job well done after I do speed work or a tempo run. After I do a long run, I feel . . . like I ran for hours. Oddly I don’t get that sense of accomplishment, which is silly because I did accomplish something. Twenty miles ain’t easy. I just really prefer to run for shorter and more intense periods.
- I’m in a bit of lull in training. The newness of training has worn away, but the race is far away enough that it doesn’t elicit a spark of excitement. The temptation of skipping training runs is growing stronger, but I know that this is a critical period of my training and I shouldn’t be skipping runs.
I saw this a month ago. It describes pretty accurately how I’m feeling.
- I don’t think this will be my first and only marathon. There are a couple things I want to do, such as Big Sur International Marathon (which has been on my bucket list FOREVER), but after I do those, I think that’ll be it for me in terms of marathons. Who knows, maybe between now and when I finish my wish list, I’ll grow to love marathoning, but this is how I feel now.
- Sometimes I feel narcoleptic and fall asleep randomly in the middle of the afternoon. Thankfully work is slow right now and this doesn’t matter.
I’m presuming that many of my feelings are the normal usual things that people feel while training. How’s your training going?
A Fast Paced Life 
My training is fine because I am not as ambitious as you are. 20 miles is awesome! Look how darn close you are. Just a 10k away from accomplishing your goal! Keep up the hard work and come here to the blogosphere for motivation and for those who follow you to route you on! I am envious of your drive! Keep going. Btw stole your golem pic because it’s prefect!
Steal away! I also stole it off the internet. It’s too funny not to share.
Thanks for all the kind words. The long 20-miler runs do give you a lot of confidence that you’ll be able to finish the race. I’m feeling good in general and managed to avoid any injuries. I just need to keep this up until Oct 4th.
“After I do a long run, I feel . . . like I ran for hours.”
Well, you *did* run for hours! It takes some time before your body can do that without feeling like that. It’s normal. 🙂
True. I just thought I would feel like I conquered the world or something afterward.
You’re doing awesome! (And I have some posts to catch up on.) I was always destroyed after those 3 hour long weekend runs myself. I’ve done 2 marathons and I’m quite happy if that number stays at 2. I love the half marathon and even 10kms. Kobi agrees so I’m going with what she wants!!
I love half marathons, but I think I do the best in 5-mile races. I tend to outperform in that distance.
Kobi knows best, so you should always go with what she wants.
Oh, I feel your pain! Had I not been injured, I would be done my race season this year. But because of the missed spring race, I booked another in October. So now I feel like I’ve just been “training for months” which I have, but I’m so over it! That said, I know I’ll feel fantastic once I get October done and know that I ran the number of races I set out to at the start of the year. Keep at it! You’re helping motivate the rest of us crazy runners!
I’ve had an unusual race season myself. Usually I race in the spring and fall, but this year I barely raced in the spring and raced more in the summer. Usually by the time I’m itching to get back to racing, but because of all the races I did over the summer I’m not feeling the same urge. That said, I know when the marathon rolls around, I’ll be excited and nervous. Let’s get through this together!
Big Sur sounds so awesome. I’m right there with you. I had to respond to this to let you know that EVERYTHING you are feeling right now is totally normal. I’m sitting here all day fielding e-mails from 160 marathoners right now about this same thing. You are at the point where the excitement has worn off and you are far enough out that it doesn’t seem like it can happen soon enough. This is also the part in your training where your body and mind are exhausted. You have to ride this wave in order to get to the taper, where life will likely start to feel great again. Be patient with your running and yourself. It will happen!
Thanks for the reassurance, Sarah. Somehow being in the doldrums isn’t so bad when you know you got company. Heh.
I know right now much of the weary is because I’m tired of hot and humid weather, tired of complaining about it, and just plain tired from the training. I gotta keep putting one foot in front of other, right?
That golem pic is awesome and so perfectly describes how I feel! I know how you feel about the training. I’m at a similar point. Some runs are good but others are just…long. lol. We’re almost there though! At least that’s what I keep telling myself. Big Sur is also on my bucket list, so I know I have at least one more marathon left in me after this one. Thanks for sharing your training progress! Nice to know I’m not alone. 🙂
Isn’t it? It got me out of a funk that I was in. I like reading about other people’s training and knowing that it’s not always sunshine and roses. It’s so easy to be envious of fast times and think that they have it so easy, when in reality we *all* go through the ups and downs of training.
Well done! I’m on Week 7 out of 16 of training for the NYC marathon and just had my wisdom teeth out. That pushed me 1.5 weeks back with training! Argh – so hard to get back on track!
Lovely picture 🙂
Thanks. I hope you’re recovering well after oral surgery. It’s hard to get back on track after a significant break, but ease into it. Personally for me, the first couple days back are the hardest and then it gets easier and easier.
Hahaha, it is indeed a precious photo.