Struggle

When my alarm went off this morning, I reset it for an hour later and told myself it was okay, I’d run after work. I laid there for 10 minutes – wide awake – and realized I actually really wanted to get up and do my run.

So I did.

I peeled myself out of bed, got dressed, slammed back some water and OJ, woke up a sleeping Rust-beast, strapped on the ol’ Garmin, and together, the Colonel (aka Rusty) and I happily headed out the door into the grey, rainy morning.

The feeling of wanting to get out of bed and run, of wanting to hit the hill and run 1min repeats over and over, has been a bit of a foreign feeling in recent weeks.

I don’t know why I find it hard to admit sometimes, but I’ve definitely been struggling with training lately. All the running, running, running, has been taking its toll on me.

It’s funny, because by the end of the 3 easy weeks post-marathon I was itching to get back at things. I wanted the structure and the hard workouts. I wanted to start building up for TRR and I couldn’t wait to really get going again.

Unfortunately, it seemed that as soon as the structure and hard work reappeared, my body wasn’t having it. I felt constantly tired and super heavy on every single run. Couple that with a lot of solo running and the doubts (and a bit of negative self-talk) started to creep in.

Thankfully, this past weekend (when I probably needed it most) I had two pretty great days of running and I could definitely start to feel a little spark of excitement reigniting in me.

So, you want to hear about the weekend? Well, okay...

Saturday morning Kirsten and I met up bright and early at Mt. Finlayson. We parked in Goldstream and headed up and over the mountain and into Gowlland Tod. We weren’t moving fast, but the conversation was flowing and the time and kms were ticking by. Before I knew it, we were back at the car and making plans for Sunday morning’s run.

Sunday we met up with a trail running group at Thetis. It was a small turnout for the group as a lot of their people were up doing the Kusam Klimb, but I think that actually made for a great (and less overwhelming) introduction. Not to mention, it was kind of nice to be able to actually chat with and meet the guys who were there.

Anyway, the plan was to run Stewart Mountain. Since Kirsten and I usually get lost when we are trying to run the Stewart Mountain loop, I think we were both kind of excited for this. We headed out with the group, and the leader promptly took a wrong turn and got us lost, haha. It was kind of hilariously awesome and definitely made Kirsten and I feel better about our constant wrong turns. Once back on track, we headed up Scafe Hill and Stewart Mountain and I made lots of mental notes about which turns to take and which turns to avoid. The time absolutely flew by and once again, before I knew it, we were back at the car.

The group was incredibly welcoming and a lot of fun and I look forward to running with them on many more Sundays in the future.

So, with that solid (and fun) weekend of running behind me and my desire to actually get out of bed and do my workout this morning, I’m hopeful that the heaviness and the struggle I’ve been feeling lately is on the way out.

I know there will still be plenty of days where my legs feel like lead and the warm bed seems more appealing than the early morning miles, but I think I’m on the right track.