The Slump.

As Dr. Seuss wrote, "Unslumping yourself is not easily done"

I have been in a sad little running slump for 2 weeks now and can't take it any more. I love running. What am I doing?? I love the way it makes me feel, I love to sweat, and I love pushing myself. Where is my motivation?

I think my motivation dried up just when I finished my summer chemistry course. That course ate the last of my motivation for breakfast.

Tomorrow we're holding a meeting about this very run and I am hoping to be inspired to lace up again by the weekend!

Listening to my body

I ran 9 miles last weekend and felt great -- great route, great pace, only stopped three times, had energy to do a bit of striding out at the end. Today, the same 9 mile run was terrible, horrible, no good, very bad... The difference? I think it was that for my most substantial meal yesterday I ate Six Flags food, I drank more soda than water yesterday, and then I drank a bit of alcohol in the evening. It's amazing to me how much things like that affect energy -- in ways I don't always notice. Running has a very valuable way of forcing that kind of listening to my body. I'm learning so much more how food, drink, sleep, mood affects my energy and my body's physical ability. I hope to carry that lesson beyond the marathon training, and I look forward to continuing to learn what exactly my body needs to work best.

Thank goodness for books on tape!

I've started listening to books on tape during my long runs. I don't let myself listen to anything on runs that are 5-6 miles or shorter, but longer than that and I find that my mind has a tendency to turn on me. I wish I were more comfortable with just being alone with my thoughts, but I count it a success that I can at least do 45 to 60 minutes without outside distraction... it's the beginning of a good discipline.

So the top 5 reasons I love listening to books on tape when I run:

1. It keeps me distracted enough to not be noticing every ache and pain in my body. But at the same time I can turn them off if I find my mind wandering and turn them back on when I'm ready for another distraction.

2. I value any excuse to enrich my mind and get lost in books. And it's free for me -- I borrow them from the library and put them on my iPod.

3. I find that on my long runs (9 miles so far), even music doesn't keep me distracted enough at times.

4. As running consumes more and more of my time (it's seriously becoming a part time job), I lament the fact that I don't have time for doing some of the other things I love -- reading being on the top of that list. Now I can "read" at the same time. If only I could find a way to "play piano" while I run... ;)

5. I only let myself "read" the books on tape when I'm running -- so it becomes its own incentive to run... (You want to know what happens next in the book? Well, starpilgrim, you're just going to have to put on some running shoes and run more than 5 measly miles...)

I just finished The Constant Gardener today (a very good book, by the way), and I'm on to The Hobbit next. I'm so glad I thought of this!!

The running Mummy.

I love running!!  Even in the rain.  Actually, more-so in the rain.  I've done it twice this past week and by the looks of the clouds will be doing it whether or not I like it for the next few weeks.  What, gentle reader, do I love so much about running in rain?  I hear you begging to know my answers.  Here are my top 5 reasons:

1. When it's raining, I don't get hot.  And getting hot is one thing that will end a run pretty quickly, esp. with my northern european blood.  

2. Don't have to worry about dehydration; just have to open my mouth a look up.

3. People usually don't go out and drive, so I can usually run in the road.

4. To those people that do go out, I look like a hardcore runner.  And I like that.

5. I LOVE, love getting soaked to the bone because so often I try to avoid it -- running from my car to the house or the grocery to the car.  Running in the rain is my chance to play and act like a little kid again.

I will gladly run my portion of this marathon, even if there is a torrential downpour!  If that isn't a good enough reason to support our efforts, then I better go out and buy an umbrella.

Update from Starpilgrim

Most of the stuff about me you can find from looking at my profile... so I'll leave out most of the general bio stuff.

I have run for exercise since I was in 6th grade, on teams for about 6 years of that time. I often say that I'm not coordinated enough to do most other sports -- running is just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other. I also like running because of the minimal equipment and venue considerations. I've been a distance runner all of my running life (not a sprinter, etc.) because I am not built like a runner -- the longer the distances, it seems, the more of a mind game is involved, and my mind is my strong suit. I can be subborn... ahem, determined... so my will power and self-talk kick in where my body is hesitant.

It has been a goal of mine since I started running to do a marathon at least once in my life. After deciding that last year was the year and Cape Cod was the place, I trained for about 6 months before a minor injury was just enough to throw me off balance. I lost momentum and just couldn't get back on track.

So this year when rawbroccoli came to me and said that she'd heard I trained for a marathon last year... and asked if I wanted to try one this year with her... I jumped at the chance. In my experience there's safety (and increased success) in numbers in this kind of thing. And my confidence is quite high this year, as I learned a lot from training last year and have more purpose and support now.

So off we go... I've been training with the marathon in mind since the beginning of March, training on a schedule since the beginning of April. My longest run so far is 8 miles. I'm running 5 days a week (4 on my easy weeks which come once a month), probably an average of 20 miles a week so far. My next goal is to be more intentional about doing other strengthening kinds of exercise, especially for my abs, which are currently getting the short end of the stick.

Thanks for visiting and for your support! Let us know what you want to see on this blog if you have specific ideas. And give running a try... you never know -- you may get hooked.