Marathon Life

I'm struggling and I don't know when I am going to get out of this funk. My body is simply not cooperating lately. I have had to really go through a lot of pain during my runs. My hamstring isn't feeling the greatest. It's also, my overall body just isn't feeling the greatest. I have questioned the logic in training for another marathon multiple times this week. Maybe my marathoning days are over. I have done 10 since 2001. Is this it? I am through? I don't want to stop it completely.

I honestly think I have a few more great marathons left in me, but my motivation is diminishing. My heart isn't as into it as it once was. I have achieved my main 2 goals with the marathon: 1. Run a qualifying time for Boston Marathon (check, done it 6 times now) and 2. Run a marathon in under 3 hours (check, done it twice now). So now what? What should be my goal? I am too competitive with myself to run a sub-par time. I don't want to go through all the months of training only to be disappointed come race day.

The bottom line is this: I don't feel comfortable on my runs now. It all feels like such a struggle each time I hit the road. What is wrong? When will I feel better? It may have to do with diet. I am trying to consume more protein. I don't think I get enough. I also don't drink enough fluids throughout the day. Today I drank more and felt better on my 5-miler. We'll see.

Below is what I did last week, ending on Sunday.

Date	Time	Mileage	Min/ Mile	Notes	HR Max	HR Ave
Oct 26, 2009	15:56	2.19	7:16	I ran to and from the gym while and then did elliptical and some weights.	155 (83%)	145 (78%)
Oct 28, 2009	45:31	6.37	7:08	I ran in the Bay Bay area at night. I didn't feel too good. HR monitor didn't work since I had no water to wet the sensors.	---	---
Oct 29, 2009	31:37	4.24	7:26	I ran on the treadmill at the gym. My calves were all sore and I didn't feel great. The pace on the treadmill was off too. It wouldn't speed up to what I wanted it to do. The machines at 24 Hour suck. I have been on better treadmills than these.	164 (88%)	148 (79%)
Oct 30, 2009	32:28	4.66	6:59	I ran around my neighborhood here. I wasn't going to do more than 3 but felt like I had energy. I need to conserve for my long run tomorrow.	169 (90%)	147 (78%)
Oct 31, 2009	1:28:52	12.46	7:08	I ran from my place down to Pacific Highway all the way up a mile past the Huntington Beach Pier and then reversed direction. It was about 6.9 miles up. I started at 10:30am, which was way too late on this warm Saturday. The sun was shining hard and by the middle of the run I had run out of energy. I had my Fuel Belt and used EmergenC in two of the bottles to get extra electrolytes. It wasn't enough. I got this wave of fatigue at about 8 miles into it. I barely hung on. When I got to the bottom of the hill back to my apt (with another 1.3 to go) I just stopped.	170 (91%)	157 (84%)
Oct 31, 2009	10:04	1.33	7:33	After 5 min of walking to recover I ended up running slowly the rest of the way home. My body was trashed from the 13+ miles. Not a good feeling.	---	---
Nov 1, 2009	10:04	1.7	---	I ran to and from the gym. Body very sore.	---	---
Week ending Oct 25, 2009	---	32.95	---	Identical to last week's total. Not sure how I feel. I am tired and sore. It took several days to get over my long run.	164.5 (88%)	149.3 (80%)