I feel like my motivation to train has been waning over the last couple of weeks. I’m not really sure why. It isn’t that I don’t want to run, it’s that I don’t want to be bound to a training schedule. I don’t want to be required to do 6 miles at tempo pace, or 5 x 1 mile repeats. I just want to run. 3 miles, 4 miles, whatever—just don’t tell me how fast or how far.

In trying to pinpoint the exact point in time when I first felt this way, I’d have to say it was after I finished my 12 mile run at a pace that would have me finishing a half marathon in under 2 hours. It certainly didn’t help that a week later I did my first ever 13 mile run (tacked on an extra tenth to hit 13.1) at a pretty easy pace, in 18 mph winds that gusted to 33 mph, and finished in 2:04 and change. My goal has been to run a two hour half marathon, and it would seem that I’m currently capable of doing just that, given the right conditions. If this is the case, then can’t I just cruise through the next 3+ weeks until the race? Do I really need to keep pushing myself?

Yes. Wait, no. Yes. Oh, I don’t know. I guess so. I want to be as prepared as possible, and with 3+ weeks to go, I’ve still got 3 tempo runs (including a really short one the week of the race), an interval workout, and 3 long runs left. That’s plenty of time for those workouts to have an impact on my race. And even though this is my first half marathon, wouldn’t it be nice to actually race it, rather than just survive it?

Surely I’m not alone in feeling this way. This is something most other runners experience, right? Right?!?