Breaking Out of a Funk

I've been in a pretty bad running funk lately. I went from hitting the 50 mile mark in September, to barely even hitting 10 miles in October. If I'd stuck with my Dopey training schedule like I was supposed to, October should have been a 100 mile month. Oops.

I'm still not sure exactly what put me there. October was the 1 year anniversary of when I started seriously running! I was coming off a 45-minute PR at the Philly R&R Half! I should be training for this foolish race series I'd signed up for in January! ...But I just had no desire to get out there and hit the pavement.

Nope, just not feelin' it.

Partially, I was getting tired of my neighborhood loop: it was hard to find longer runs that didn't involve major roadways and the shadier parts of town. Partially, my scheduled runs were getting longer, and daylight was disappearing faster, so I didn't have as much time to run after work (and I'm the WORST about waking up and going before work). Partially, it was getting colder, so I had to think about layering and what gear would be best, rather than just throwing on shorts and a tank and heading out.

Most of all, I was getting really bummed about my speed. Or, rather, lack thereof. I've always been fully aware that I'm a slow runner. I take walk breaks, and I take them fairly often. Until recently, I've been able to accept that about myself, and just take pride in the fact that I'm lapping everyone on the couch by just getting up and going. But recently, that wasn't enough. I was getting discouraged that my pace averaged out at about a 13 minute mile.

Easier read than believed

I was getting pretty bad envy of the paces and finishing times of other runners in community groups. I kept trying to tell myself that running was a competition with myself - not with others on the road, and that my speed had hugely increased since I started running the previous fall, but it wasn't working. I was burned out, in a funk, and entering into a downward spiral: if I didn't train, I wasn't going to get faster or more stamina; but I had no desire to train, because I was feeling slow and less than mediocre.

Thankfully (and completely unexpectedly), Saturday's Richmond Half Marathon turned it around for me. I went into it with seriously low expectations - there were a whole bunch of factors that pointed to me having a terrible race day. But despite all of the mental, physical, and circumstantial factors working against me that morning, I wound up feeling great the whole run. I pushed through it all, and came out almost a full minute per mile under my average pace.

Pushing toward the finish line, and outta the funk.

Now, as I'm riding on the awesome feeling of a successful race, I'm feeling mentally stronger to move into the heavy training schedule we need to stick to for Dopey. The only thing I'm competing against is myself, and I know I've got this.