Feeling Unmotivated

Well, this was inevitable - the motivation slump that comes with training for a race. I'm not sure what caused it... maybe the fact that I planned two races in a row? Maybe the fact that the Seattle Marathon 10K didn't actually fit well into my training plan, and I just kind of shoved it in there? Truthfully, I shouldn't even be running it, since I was supposed to have the Columbia Winery 10K on that Saturday, then run 13 miles the next Sunday, then run another 10K on a Saturday. Instead, I scheduled the 10K the day before I'm supposed to run 13 miles. I'm smart.

I did get new shoe inserts, though! Look at the difference!

I had the ones on the right for just about a year. Now these are shiny and new! Looks like Road Runner Sports got into the insert business, huh?

I completed my run a little reluctantly on Monday - only 6 miles, and it felt sluggish. 

At least it was beautiful weather?

Then, I was supposed to do an 8 mile tempo run on Wednesday, but COULD NOT get myself out of bed. Our bed is so comfortable and our bedroom is so dark that it's truly difficult to leave it in the mornings! I can't even imagine how it'll be once it starts getting cold - I'll never want to get up, ever! 

I pushed that run to Thursday, but what I had scheduled that day was just a 7 mile run, and I figured... well, I'm really not supposed to be doing any kind of interval runs or speed runs the week leading up to a race, right? So I just deleted the 8 tempo miles from my calendar and completed 7 miles in the afternoon.

Of course my right hip started acting up again during this run? But then I also got a notification that I need to get new shoes, so hopefully once I do that, it'll fix the problem. It's nice that the Wave Rider 17s lasted 8 months, I guess. 

The two days between these two runs, I wrestled with myself on how unmotivated I was feeling. On Tuesday, I welcomed the rest day. I felt like I was still exhausted from Saturday's race with Monday's 6 miles piled on top. So Wednesday came and I just could not find the energy. But, I was still eating like I was running 8 miles that day... ugh! 

Once I get into a training cycle of running, and fueling post-run and pre-run, I kind of stop counting calories as diligently as I usually do since I'm ultimately going to burn them off. But when I don't run, or take a little break, or taper, I turn into a crazy monster of eating ALL THE THINGS.

Hopefully that'll subside once things calm down, but who knows. I'm trying to just listen to my body and "honor my hunger", as they say. 

How do you honor your hunger?