Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Reassessing and Reevaluating

As many of you know, I have been training for a half marathon at the end of March.  I haven't been talking about it much on the blog for awhile because I've been doing a lot of thinking about this race lately.  The first problem that I have run into is that I think this training is putting far more strain on my body than I would like.  I understand that training for an even like this requires sacrifice, but I want to have usable knees when this is all over! 

The other challenge I'm facing is that I have started to absolutely loathe running.  It went from being something I enjoyed to something I couldn't wait to be over.  At first I thought it was just one of those runs that was going to be not so great.  Then it turned into a whole week of running that I despised.  So I took a couple days off around my birthday to give my body some rest time.  When I went for my next run, I was still cursing about it.  I want to get back to a place where I actually enjoy running again.

So with those things in mind, it doesn't make sense for me to keep training for a half marathon.  I don't want to injure myself where I might do some serious damage and I also don't want to hate running when it's all over.  I've decided to move ahead to the next big race that's on my calendar and work on that.  It happens to be a triathlon in May.  When I trained for my first triathlon last summer I loved it because of all the variety you get in the workouts.  I did my first day yesterday and I already feel better about my decision.

I think sometimes you need to reevaluate your goals and see if what you are trying to achieve is really realistic.  I've only really been running consistently for about a year now.  Maybe my body is just trying to tell me that it's not ready.  Either way, I don't feel like I'm quitting.  I feel like I'm moving on.  It's about being realistic.  That's not to say there won't be a half marathon in my future.  I'm hoping that I do complete one someday.  This one just wasn't the one.  However, I'm looking forward to focusing on triathlon training and the triathlon season to come!

3 comments:

  1. Great post. It is best to listen to your body!

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  2. Good choice. You need to listen to your body and your heart. You know what is best for you. I'm sure you are going to have a great tri season.

    Speaking of tris, I just registered for my 3rd tri (I did my first two with no training when I was pregnant). I'm hoping to crush my past performances. If you have any tips, feel free to send them my way!

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  3. Good for you for making this decision. I think it's a really smart one. You don't want to get injured (I would know) and you definitely don't want to start hating running, that would not be worth it at all!

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