Lacking motivation after running first marathon. Is this common?

Pisco Sour

Hey all,

Ran my first marathon almost 4 weeks ago in Rotterdam. Trained for over 5 months for it and completed it in 4:07 which I was absolutely thrilled with.

Now that the dust has settled on it however I'm struggling to get motivated to get out and run.

I started running 2 years ago. Before then I had never raced further than 1500m and hadnt run at all for a good 3 years or so. So i thought of it as a new challenge. So I targetted a 10k race. Trying something that I had never done before was something that really motivated me.

Once I did that I moved on to something more difficult and so on. After focusing on 10k, I trained for a Sprint-Triathlon, then after that I focused on a Half Marathon, then after that I did an Olympic Triathlon, and finally the Marathon. In each of these events I was training for something I had never done before. It was a new challenge which was something that really motivated me.

Now that I've finished the marathon the natural thing to do next would be:

1) Run another marathon, and try run sub 4 hours
2) Do a Half-Ironman
3) Do an Ultramarathon (like Connemara)

Problem is that I wont have the time to commit to any of these this summer. I'm doing my final exams in September so the summer will be spent studying, and then after that I'll be heading off travelling for 12-15 months.

So these 3 things will have to wait for a couple of years.

So in the meantime whats available to me? Shorter races! And at the moment I just cant motivate myself to get out and train for a 5 mile race or a 5km race. Theres nothing new or exciting, or unknown about it.

Perhaps if I run one road race soon and I run a good time, then it will provide me with that hunger needed to get out and train and improve my times over shorter distances. But at the moment I'm struggling to get motivated. I was thinking about doing that Sportsworld 5 Miler on sunday week, but have only run 3 miles of running since the marathon.

Has anybody else ever suffered from the same sort of motivation problems after their first, or any marathon? And what did you do to overcome it?

bart simpson

04072511 wrote: »

Problem is that I wont have the time to commit to any of these this summer. I'm doing my final exams in September so the summer will be spent studying, ?

marathon training is demanding but if you could get out for an hour 4 0r 5 times a week you might be able to get a personal best and also distress from the exams and studying

Izoard

04072511 wrote: »

Now that I've finished the marathon the natural thing to do next would be:

1) Run another marathon, and try run sub 4 hours
2) Do a Half-Ironman
3) Do an Ultramarathon (like Connemara)

Problem is that I wont have the time to commit to any of these this summer. I'm doing my final exams in September so the summer will be spent studying, and then after that I'll be heading off travelling for 12-15 months.
QUOTE]

Don Fink has a well road-tested IM training plan that will "get you round", averaging at 8 hours per week.

Most of the people on here are juggling family, jobs, college etc., and still manage to turn out exceptional performances with very limited training windows.

I hear you on the short distances...my pull is always towards longer, which is pretty family unfriendly, but by training any of early morning, lunchtime, and late evening it is doable (IM - I hope:)) while juggling family and a job that has me out of the country more often than not.

misty floyd

You mentioned before you went to join a club and it didn't work out. Why not try again with some other club that might suit you? Running with people for a bit of banter who are chasing PB's is a great motivation.

To answer your question, I've heard it happens alright. I mean, you train for so long and it builds up to just one day. Over. Your gonna feel a little empty.

Why not work on improving your 10km and 5m PB. The training is a lot different....which is interesting and its gonna be a big challenge. Set an ambitious target and try work to it. Start a log and make a statement that you are gonna do x mins for such and such a 10km.

I know its hard to do well in final year and running but great way to get away from the stress of it.

I'm a hypocrite: I put on a +stone during the 9mths of my final year:o

rainbow kirby

misty floyd wrote: »

I'm a hypocrite: I put on a +stone during the 9mths of my final year:o

I'm the opposite - I lost 4 stone in my final year of undergrad :eek:

I'm the world's biggest procrastinatory runner, my 2 highest mileage weeks since DCM '09 have been during the semester 1 and 2 reading weeks. I'll be working on my masters thesis during the summer, and of course running through it, because I work much better when I can fit in some training.

misty floyd

rainbow kirby wrote: »

I'm the opposite - I lost 4 stone in my final year of undergrad :eek:

I'm the world's biggest procrastinatory runner, my 2 highest mileage weeks since DCM '09 have been during the semester 1 and 2 reading weeks. I'll be working on my masters thesis during the summer, and of course running through it, because I work much better when I can fit in some training.

4 stone! well done RK, thats deadly. There has been lots of tales of weight loss on A/R/T over the last couple of days.

Anyway 04, college/work and running can work well together. Jealous of the travelling, where are you going?

Pisco Sour

misty floyd wrote: »

Anyway 04, college/work and running can work well together. Jealous of the travelling, where are you going?

Well not quite college unfortunately (I wish it was). Doing my final professional accountancy exams (the definition of hell! Hardest damn things imaginable!), but yeh theres absolutely lots of time for running. I just dont think I'd have the time to commit to another Marathon, but 10km's are very easy to accomodate into my daily life. Just need to get myself motivated to do them! Is there any good 10km's around the Dublin area coming up over the next couple of months? Its probably my favourite distance. I have a 45:32 PB. Maybe I could get that down sub 44.

Planning on hitting South America, then NZ, and then settle in Melbourne for awhile, work for awhile, see all of Oz, and then come back through Asia. Might aswell do it while I'm young.:D

thepassanger

maybe try to find some interesting runs you would like to do in south america or NZ or Oz? if you set yourself a ridiculous goal you might get motivated to start again. this happened me with triathlon training and then i fell in love with running so this year has been filled with running mostly. really enjoying the imra races/hill running. finding slightly wild places near your home is a splash of being a kid again, im only 21 but i feel like i need to be a child for the rest of my life.
maybe read an inspirational book like 'born to run' christopher mc dougall (this book has gotten a huge cult following) or feet in the clouds (a tale of fell running in wales)
good luck with the accountancy exams!