Stuck In The Rut Race

I have to confess to you that I've been in a bit of a runner's rut lately.  I just haven't felt like running.  It's not that the runs have gotten too hard or too long or too painful. Thankfully, the runs themselves are going along just fine (yes, knocking on wood as I am typing).  It's the thinking about the runs that I'm sick of.  I cannot tell you how much thinking goes into marathon training.  I have to think about how far to run, what time to run, what time to wake up to run, what time to leave work to run, what time does the sun rise, what time does the sun set, what's the temperature going to be, what to pack to wear to run, what to eat/drink before a run, etc.  My whole schedule revolves around getting those four weekly runs it.  Oh, and of course finding time to stretch, strength train, and foam roll in order to prepare my body to make it through the runs.  Really, it's just become too consuming.  My life outside of running already borders all consuming and overwhelming.  Throw in that I have turned running into training and I'm really starting to feel the mental toll.

 

 

But the thing about being stuck in a rut is that you just have to break out.  You have to push through and push on.  I did some reading on methods for busting out of a training rut and I'm going utilize a few suggestions and keep on going.  The bright side is that I have only a little over a month to go before race day (how can that seem too soon and too long at the same time?!?!) and then running can go back to just being running and not training.  At least for a while. 

 

Do you ever find yourself stuck in the rut?   What are your rut cures?

 

Yesterday, when it was just too dark, too cold, and too rainy to really be motivated at all, I decided to try something new and do my run on the treadmill.  I said new, not fun.  You should know that running on a treadmill, to me, is akin to water torture.  It's so repetitive you want to scream.  But, the gym was a place I hadn't seen in a while and it was warm and dry and fit the "change your location" recommendation, so to the treadmill I went.  I sat my phone on the treadmill ledge and did a moderately paced five mile run while watching old youtube videos.  I won't say it was my favorite run ever, but it was different and I got through it.  And, I can now feel confident taking it to the gym for runs I just can't fit in during the daylight hours.  Which, at this time a year, are far fewer than you'd think.  It's nice to have opened up that option. 

 

Also, a few times I looked up from my screen to see this on directly in front of me:

Now, I know there are a lot of WWE fans out there, but really?  This could possibly have been the craziest thing I'd ever seen on TV.  In the time it took me to run five miles, I saw a wrestler acting like a ballroom dancer, one using what I think was a sock puppet on his hand to intimidate his opponent, and enough male lycra to last me a lifetime.  Talk about motivation to get back outdoors running....