Another PW?

[anakiwa]

So I seem to get slower no matter what I do.

In July I did my 4th and slowest half ironman.

In October I ran Chicago- it was my fifth and slowest marathon. I had run each of the previous 4 faster than the one before it- somehow I got it into my brain that every marathon I run will be faster than the last (logically this doesn't make sense- but it was fun while it lasted). At Chicago it was 90 degrees- I backed off early in the race- finished 4 minutes slower than my first marathon (PW #2 of the year), but was happy not to have needed a trip to the hospital the way so many others did that day.

So I thought- why not try again? I picked out the new Manchester (NH) marathon. This gave me a 4 week break. I hadn't pushed that hard in Chicago and felt I recovered fairly well. I did a couple med-long runs, but spent most of the 4 weeks recovering and re-tapering.

Going into the race I somehow knew I didn't have it in me- I revised my goal by 10 minutes (at Chicago I'd wanted to aim for 3:50, which would have been 4 minutes faster than the 3:54 PR I had last year). Things started out fine- but I was generally coming in 5-10 seconds slower than I'd meant to- and I didn't want to go any faster. By 16-18 miles I was starting to slow way down. I felt fine otherwise (well fine for 2/3 of the way through a marathon). By mile 20 I'd lost all drive to run faster. I kept running, and picked it up a little in the last couple of miles, to finish at 4:23. This was my second PW marathon in under a month (2 minutes slower than I ran in Chicago when it was 90 degrees).

So what's going on? I started dating a great guy in January- it's probably cut into my training a little (but not that much). Is it possible that I could have lost the drive to compete in 10 months? I'm not even that disappointed- as I was running along I kept thinking 'well there's more to life than PR's and racing'.

Any thoughts?

[velogirl]

not knowing your history (ie how long you've been running and competing), off the top of my head it sounds like you might need a break.

[rocknrollgirl]

I know at the end of my season in September, I had no "go Juice" left. I just could not seem to push to go fast. I am still feeling that way a month later.