Update And Burn Out

It has been a couple weeks since my last update so I thought it was time for another post. Since my last post I have completed both a 17 and 18 mile long run and both went fairly well. My marathon is 6 weeks from Saturday, but this week I am focused on the Drake Relays Half Marathon. The race starts at 7:30 am on Saturday and the forecast is calling for cold temperatures with a chance of rain. I'm not anticipating running a PR due to the type of training that I am doing, but I do want to run a strong race.

I'm also hoping that this race will help with another issue that I've been facing. For the past couple of weeks burn out has really started to set in. I think I've finally found my limits when it comes to running. At this point I'm just trying to hang on until the marathon so that I can cut way back on the mileage that I'm running. At this point, I just think the marathon distance just isn't for me. Maybe sometime in the future I will get back into it, but I could very well be a one and done marathoner.

On that note, the miles have really started to pile up. I pulled my total mileage for the year from Garmin Connect to see how I'm doing towards my goals and I was surprised at where I'm at. Not even 4 months in and I'm averaging over 100 miles per month, well ahead of where I need to be to do my part towards our goal of 2,017 miles.

Over 400 miles in

Today marked the end of another pair of running shoes as well. Looking back over the 96 runs that I did in these shoes there were some good memories. These were the shoes that I wore for the Des Moines Marathon Relay, the Turkey Trot 5k, and Leprechaun Chase 10k (actually 5k). 

401.2 miles over 9 months

Newly retired shoes

As I retired these shoes, I noticed that my "new" shoes already have 150 miles on them. With over 6 weeks of training to go, I quickly ordered a new pair of shoes to begin breaking in. I decided to deviate from the trail runners that I have been using for the past 4 years but did stick with New Balance brand shoes. The road running shoes are suppose to have better soles and arch supports. I'm excited to see how well they work for me.