Happy Spring!

Yipee! It's spring!

 First day of spring – and what a beauty. It’s sunny. The temperature is headed into the teens. The trails are clear. The birds are returning. I even heard a few Canada geese honking their way back north to their breeding grounds in the Arctic. Winter does suck at times, but it all seems worth it when the world starts waking up again. Running is my way to stay in touch with the incremental changes. The trails tell the tale of renewal each day.

My training could use a little renewal. Or at least my motivation could. My efforts for the past few weeks have been lacklustre. I’ve been dropping runs and workouts here and there. Nothing too serious, but I don’t feel focused. I’m dragging. I should feel grateful to be healthy and injury free (knock on digital wood), but I’m just not feeling it.

I’ve read a couple of things recently that suggest not over thinking training – just do and watch the fluctuations instead of getting all worked up and analyzing everything to death. It sounds wise, but what fun is there in it? I love to analyze – even when all I end up with is useless analysis instead of useful insight.

These days my hand wringing has been over my emotional low. I was feeling so great, so full of life for awhile, but now the running feels flat. I know this is a potential sign of fatigue and over training – but I’m not sure it’s that. I don’t feel physically lethargic, and I’m hitting my paces okay when I want to. Part of me wonders if it’s just some natural cycle. Or maybe it’s a reaction to changes in my routine. First, I lost my running buddy to injury – he’s on the mend, but won’t be doing the marathon with me. And then my wife and I were dog/house sitting for a week for friends. It was nice to get a change of scenery, but it was a break in routine.

I’m wondering, now, how important routine is to body and mind in training. And I wonder if breaking routine has emotional consequences. I know so many folks (including myself) who have mostly crappy runs on vacation – and for a week after vacation. In that case, there are changes in food routines – but that’s kind of what I’m getting at: any dramatic changes in routine may have an effect.

Or they might not. I’m just uselessly pondering the possibility.

My cure for the blahs has simply been to slow the runs down and enjoy them. I’ll still hit my workouts on pace, but I think I’m going to dial back my easy running until I feel peppy again. I’ve been pushing at that easy pace, regularly hitting ks under 4:10. Perhaps that kind of load is taking its toll incrementally.

Anyway... 7 weeks until Toronto. I’m starting to get a bit nervous – but it’s a good nervous. And if I manage it right, it’ll turn into excitement instead of anxiety.

Peace. Happy spring!