No cute lead in to this one. I’m not even going to break down the week like I normally do. There really isn’t much point. I am half way through training for marathons 4 and 5 and things are not going well. I can pretty much pinpoint the problem.

The problem with this round of training is that I didn’t take it seriously. Man, that’s hard to admit. I have been known to take winter training a little less seriously than my spring/summer training for some reason, I think it’s the weather, but I have managed to make it through without any real issues. Since running my first full marathon I have PR’d marathon 2 and 3 by 15 minutes each. I have cut over over a half an hour from my initial marathon time. I know it could be better if I stayed focused all year round.

I think I also bit off more than I can chew. Maybe. At least for where my life sits right now. I signed up for the Cleveland Marathon the day after running the half in May. I was just so hopped up on adrenaline and love for Cleveland, I knew I wanted to run the full in 2013. Then, in September last year I was walking the expo at the Akron Marathon and signed up for the Pittsburgh Marathon.

This all sounded like a good idea at the time.

(station road bridge… my summer stomping ground, and scene for this saturday’s 15 miler that wasn’t)

But things change sometimes. All of a sudden I found myself in a different place in life. I took a short hiatus from running after Chicago, I needed it really, and figured I would start back up a regular running routine with the next marathon. But my social life was growing, I was making more plans, focusing on different things and running took a backseat. Going to work in the morning, the barn in the afternoon, running at 7pm, and eating cereal alone for dinner on my couch before bed at 10 o’clock was no longer my routine. I had fun and exciting things going on.

So when the pressure of training returned what did I do? Certainly didn’t amp up the running and slow down the socializing. Instead, if I missed a run I would make up for it in higher miles the next day. Which made me tired for my workout the following day. But I kept my weekend long runs the same and for a few weeks there running the day after a long run as well.

And now I am facing an injury. Plagued with hip soreness that I can only suspect is causing other issues. My hips are always tight, and my achilles is causing me some discomfort. And after yesterday’s slow and easy 4 miler on a the treadmill, I am having a flare up of shin pain. All on the right side. I can only assume it’s from skipping those short runs and pushing myself into high miles.

(neo fit runners meet for saturday long runs all summer at station road, check out the program here)

I thought that a good plan of action would be to drop back from the full to the half at Pittsburgh. I was planning to run it as part of my training, but then thought maybe that would cause more issues in the long run. So I went to the Pittsburgh Marathon site to see what I needed to do to change races, and alas the half marathon is sold out and they are no longer taking transfers. Either I run the full, or forfeit that money. I could just go and run the half, what are they gonna do right? But that’s just not my style. A DNF is not going on my books.

So what is going to happen. Well I am going to plug along and stay as focused as I can. I am running the St. Malachi 5 Mile race this weekend that I will tack on to an additional 8 for my long run and hopefully get in some trails on St. Patrick’s day as it is the last time I will be able to meet with the trail group before Fools Run on April 7th.

From there I will be running the Cleveland 10 miler and the City2City 5k, all with extra miles added on to meet my long runs. I am going to abandon speed and focus on comfort. Try not to push myself and go into each race with the intentions to survive. I am going to focus on each days run, stay in the moment, and stop worrying about the marathons. Because it is unlikely that I will meet my original goals.

I have one goal at this point, simply to survive. I just want to finish. I have an appointment in 2 weeks with my favorite “runner overuse injury” doc and I will continue with all the hip exercises I have been forcing myself to do. Pretty much that is all I can do at this point.

So this really isn’t a weekly recap, I guess. Just a rant. But I suppose everyone is allowed a good rant every now and then.

How is your marathon training going? Ever have to cancel a race due to injury or lack of preparedness? How did you come to a decision? I have a friend who was prepping for a marathon this spring and had to pass due to falling off the training wagon. Luckily she hadn’t registered yet, but still a tough decision.