Running Burnout

Hi friends,

Time passes by very slowly today. Probably because I've been skipping all my usual routines and just decided to lay in bed all day. If I could describe one word for today, it would be burnout.

I've been falling off from my routines lately and today was the final straw. I skipped my usual morning run.

I have one rule that I tell to myself every morning: No matter what happens, never skip your runs. 

The morning run is important to get my daily dose of positive emotions. It gets me throughout the day feeling more alive and energetic. But today I didn't get those injection of D.O.S.E. (Dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, endorphin)

As I reflect on the reason for this, I know it's because of my new running schedule. I've been increasing my mileage and also increasing the intensity for my speed training by a significant amount. It's not even the middle of the month yet, but I've already progressed more than 55% of my monthly goal. To put into perspective, if I keep this up, by the end of the month I will run 165 km. That is 65 km more than my regular target of 100 km. According to the general rule of thumb, a steady mileage growth should only be about 10%. So that means it should only be 110 km by the end of the month instead of 165 km.

So this post serves as a reminder for my future self to always listen to your body and have a realistic plan. Focus on the long term instead of trying to chase that performance spike that only happens rarely. 

I'm only allowing myself for 1 more day of rest before continuing with my runs. According to my realistic schedule, I have a float of 2 days so I could start with some short and easy runs to gain some momentum again.

Wish me luck friends!