Ever since last year, I started to realize that I enjoy shorter races a lot more, so I change my "A" race in August of the Challenge Pocono Half to the Olympic. As a result, I'm already at the fitness level that I need to do well there, so it really is fine tuning my workouts for that race. With Alcatraz being over, I'm ahead of where I need to be so trying to spend more time on the roads than I have to in order of building my base fitness is just something that I haven't been able to accomplish. I'm finding that instead of running 14 miles, I'll cut it short to 9-10 miles, or spending an hour and half on the trainer instead of the 2 plus hours. While this isn't a horrible thing, especially since the distance for an Olympic race is shorter than that, it's more of me not having that inner voice telling me to push myself.
I've always prided myself and making the most out of my workouts and pushing as hard as I can, but now when a hard part of the workout comes, I start to dread it instead of looking forward to it. I always love going up hills knowing that they will make me stronger. I'm starting to find routes that avoid the hills.
It could be the heat of the summer, it could be knowing that my fitness is relatively where it should be, or it could be something that I can't put my finger on, but I need to get on it and quick. Pushing through the pain is a good thing to me, so I want to make sure that I get that part of my training back.
