Hello friends!

Happy Wednesday! It’s officially hump day so the good news is if you are reading this, you’ve made it this far.

I’ve decided to title this week: reset and refocus week. I’ve made it a point to be very honest with all throughout this training cycle. It hasn’t been easy and in many ways I attribute that to my own mistakes. Running is a lot of trial and error and there have been a few things looking back on it I’ve realized I did wrong.

Off Season – I had good intentions during my off season. I wanted to work on speed, which is completely normal. The problem is that when most people stop to work on speed they cut their mileage back. I didn’t which led to a bit of overtraining.

After Chicago, I am going to plan a much longer post-marathon rest period and then when I do go into speed my mileage will be cut back substantially.

Choosing the Same Plan – Going into Chicago there really wasn’t much question which plan I was going to do. Last time around I used Hansons and cut an hour and 9 minutes off my PR. Why wouldn’t I use that again, right?

The problem that I didn’t foresee is the mental struggle that can be. Hansons is great, but after spending over 20 weeks doing it the last time around and then a short break before doing it again. It became too much of the same thing and made it hard mentally for me.

So, now the question is what am I going to do during these next 8 weeks?

I haven’t given up yet! Thanks a lot to my amazingly supportive husband who continues to believe in me regardless of the struggles I’ve had this time around.

I’ve pretty much determined that a 3:15 probably isn’t going to happen in October. However, I am still going to give it my all and aim for a PR. Wes is pretty confident that even with my current training I could still run a PR right now. While I’ve got to build a little more confidence before I’m ready to say that, I’m going to give it my all and keep training for my 3:19-3:20 and see what I can do.

I’ve got so many years ahead, and maybe 15 minutes was a bit too big of a chunk to take up this time around.

Switching Things Up – I’ve decided that I’m going to be switching my training up for the next 8 weeks. The basics are the same as Hansons, but I’ll be adding in some new workouts and tempo varieties to help try to get me mentally back in the game.

Thankfully Wes is extremely experienced and is helping me work in some new workouts. I think my body needs to do a few things it’s never done before.

Confidence Building – The summer has really taken a lot out of me. Aside from already being a bit over trained and with summer heat, I’ve lost a lot of confidence. Any runner knows that 80% of the battle is mental and when you are struggling with that it makes things a lot more difficult.

A big goal over the next 8 weeks is to work on getting some of my confidence back so that I can go into Chicago feeling much more focused.

Relax – I stress a lot about training. It’s not good. Not only are my cortisol levels probably through the roof, but my health takes a back seat. My focus is to relax and take each day as it comes. Be proud of the good moments, let go of the bad, and realize it’s all part of the game. I can only do so much, but by focusing on relaxing I will put myself in a much better position come October 11^th.

[Tweet “Be proud of the good moments, let go of the bad, and realize it’s all part of the game.”]

I look forward to continuing to share this journey with you! This is only one race, and there will be many more in the future. I keep pushing forward and hopefully it’ll pay off with a new PR in October. If not, well Chicago is still a beautiful city and a fun time!

What are you focusing on this week?

How many weeks are left until your next race?