Over the past few months I've not been great when it comes to running or blogging, in fact I've been pretty poor. This year I have run once in January, once in February, twice in March and twice again this month and to be truthful I've been pretty apathetic to the whole process on putting one foot in front of the other. I've been trying to figure out what's up and why my love for running seems to have abandoned me over the past few months. These are my current thoughts...
The last major run I did was the Dublin City Marathon on the 31st of October last year. When this was over my feet hurt a lot and I decided to take a little break to rest up. I probably wasn't at the required fitness to run the marathon, but I did it, had the aches and pains to prove it and felt my body deserved a break after it. After a week or two I tried to get back to running and managed to run twice in November but stopped again not having much desire to run. I got out one week also in December for a few runs but again stopped after that. Maybe the rest and the slump in running has added to my reluctance to get back on the road or maybe it was marathon blues and at the end of completing a big goal my body has decided to take it's own break. I'm not sure.
However I pretty sure part of it is connected to the difficult year that was 2011. In March 2011 a friend of mine was diagnosed with Leukemia. When I heard what had happened I decided to try and raise some money for the Irish cancer society by registering for the Dublin City Marathon. In the 6 or 7 months I was training my friend had a lot of ups and downs but she always stayed extremely positive. Then at the end of the summer she got the bad news that the chemo was no longer having an effect and there was nothing more that the doctors could do for her. On the 25th of October 2011 my friend passed away, she was only 29. It was a shock for all of us. I haven't really felt much like running since.
I'm starting to feel tired, which I know is how I felt before I started running a fews years ago. I know that I need to run for my mental health and I need to start running regularly. With that in mind I have registered for a 5km at the end of the month and have come back to blogging to keep me motivated as I try to get back in shape and get back to regular running. I'm also getting back to reading blogs, which I know will motivate me. Next week starts the first week of proper training for 2012, 4 months late but better late than never.
The plan is 3km easy on Tuesday, 3km easy on Thursday and 5km easy on Saturday. I have to start somewhere. We'll see by Saturday if I manage to complete 11km.
For a start I ran a 5km yesterday to check my fitness. I ran it as fast as I could and didn't check the watch until the end. I've slowed down by almost 4 minutes over 5km since October but I feel that that is not too bad considering the lack of running. I'm sure if I stick to it I be back to good fitness in a few months.
Talk to you next week... Keep on running...
It's easy to stop running, and coming back always give us some pain
ReplyDeleteLike you after the bridge half-marathon i stopped for 1year, i am coming back (with some soccer games in the middle) for the same reasons than you, mental health and pyshical energy :)
In europe there are some half-marathons (Paris, Stockolm, Edimburg, Rome) that can be used as pratice target!