Same Time, Same Channel

After all the intense,high mileage, early morning training you've done over the last couple of years, a few weeks of low mileage might be excusable. But let's not hear any of this talk about quitting! Although I think about it every week.

I am with JD, Carolyn, sometimes the "grind" takes its toll and you need some downtime from actual training. As long as you run a few miles every-other-day you are keeping fit enough to get back in shape really easily. Especially marathon training, is just really hard mentally and physically. And besides, we all have things other than running that we need to pay attention to ...

I hope things slow down a bit for you.

I think it's good to just take it easy and let the intense training take a back seat. I do it often...probably too often, but I don't like it when I hate running.

hope you're loving it again soon

I agree with the above comments. Similar to how you need "easy" days or "easy" weeks when you've been training hard, sometimes you need "easy" months.

Also, I find summer a hard time to train hard because not only is it warmer, but my kids are all out of school. We have less of a schedule and end up staying up much later, sleeping in much later, etc. Plus, I end up feeling somewhat guilty and/or resentful when I'm running or when I'm at work 6-7 hours a day instead of doing quality things with them.

Maybe for now mix things up a bit - try short fun runs where you can talk with other people, or try a cool trail run somewhere. (Maybe do a charity 5K for fun - don't worry about training for it, but instead use it as a training run to benchmark yourself.)

Good luck. I bet you feel your running mojo come back in a few weeks.