I have discovered that I am actually a winter runner...and a heavy drinker. So strange since I am always cold, but I really hate the heat...and I really like wine. The heat makes me feel like I am suffocating. The heat makes me lethargic. The heat makes me mad. So I don't run in the heat. Waking up early also seems to make me mad, but Jess would say waking up at all makes me mad. What can I say, I am not a morning person (and no it isn't because of the wine)! So I can't beat the heat with an early morning run and the treadmill is boring if you do it everyday. It is a real dilemma. But I have to keep running don't I?
Inevitably, when you are training hard or have finished a big race or simply run everyday for fun, you can and will burn out. Guess what I have? No not alcoholism silly! Burn out!
After the intense effort to train for my 1st marathon, I found that running just to run was refreshing, however, slowly the drive to run has been replaced with the drive to do anything BUT run. It feels like I am trying to run away from running.
Talking this dilemma over with my many running enthusiast friends, and of course Jesse (who said it took him over a year to run another marathon after his 1st, and is now approaching his 5th only 2 yrs after that) I have discovered something. Something I will generously share with you. You are welcome.
Runners are tweakers! They are obsessive, often compulsive people that take on running in a way that makes something that should be a fun activity and turn it into the center of their lives. Jesse said at a dinner party the other night when asked what was new "all I can think about is my running". When runners aren't running, they are planning their runs, reading about running (thank you by the way), figuring out what to eat...that will be best for running! It is pretty easy to burn out when it is so all consuming.
It occurred to me that after 3 years of "serious" running, I have postpartum from the marathon. The excitement, the build up, it is over and I want to get that back. The training and races prior to that were leading up to the incredible moment of crossing the finish line at my first marathon! A feeling of empowerment and pride that is like nothing else you've ever experienced.
How do you ask, does someone get that amazing feeling back? Rid themselves of the postpartum? I have no freakin idea people!
What I am trying out as a cure is diverting my attention. Not wanting to run in the heat? Not wanting to hit the treadmill to watch the same bad TV shows? Play list sucks? Go find a friend and hike in the cooler mountains, swim laps at the pool, jump on a trampoline (actually a great workout) or run the river (as in Rafting, not "I Shouldn't be Alive" craziness)! Mix it up so you feel like you are having some Summer fun! And, of course, drink plenty of wine.
...or start taking the same crazy pills Jesse is taking and train for a 50 miler. I bet that finish line blows your mind!
www.VivacWinery.com
No comments:
Post a Comment