Yesterday I emailed the elite coordinator at Grandma's and pulled out of the marathon. It was a hard email for me to write because once again I failed; I didn't reach any of my short term goals and again didn't finish a training cycle. But pulling out of the race was the only choice I could have made. I have shown up at races not completely ready to race and not sure if my body would allow me to compete at the level that I wanted and have had mixed outcomes. Occasionally I would surprise myself and run well but more often than not the race ended in disaster and I would be left feeling broken and discouraged. Interestingly enough, it is very similar to how I am feeling now! The last 4 cycles I have started have all ended in me having to abort the cycle and take a little bit of downtime (either a complete layoff of running or easy jogging). The first I stopped because of low ferritin, the next one I was having hamstring and hip flexor issues from slipping on ice, the 3rd cycle was cut short due to adrenal fatigue and now this one.
I have been thinking about the cycle so I could figure out what went wrong, what I can change and also what my plan should be. And I can't figure it out. I keep a training log for this reason, among others; but even looking back there is nothing that I can pinpoint that I did wrong. And to be really non-creative--it sucks! So in the near future, I will be running really easy/slow runs, working on my mechanics and trying to get the hamstring under control. I hope my little plan works!
