FOR GILLIAN - PART 2

Thanks for coming back with that extra info Gillian. (Refer comments on my last post). Its really helped me to understand your situation better.

Firstly let me say how much I admire and respect junior primary teachers. My boy is in year 3 so his year 1 is still very fresh in my memory. His class of 18 - 20 boys was mighty enthusiastic and energetic and fortunately led by an exceptionally good teacher. I'm sure she had her days though.

Teaching is very tiring work so I totally get what you're saying. I have the "luxury" of sitting at a computer or in meetings for most of my days but that can be tiring too - yet in a different way. And I remember very well how incredibly tired I was in the last 2 weeks of my HM training. Talk about fatigue with a capital F!! I avoided all forms of incidental exercise and movement just to survive and even then I had to take a few extra rest days before the race as I was worried that I'd line up on the day and be too tired to run the distance.

You mention that you'll be 50 on your next birthday. My comment: IRRELEVANT!! (And I mean that in a nice way!!) You seem like an energetic, enthusiastic and driven person that is not shackled by the number attached to your next birthday. OK you / we may not have as much energy as a super fit 20something year old but I'm sure we'd give a lot of others our age a good run for their money.

So here are my thoughts on your tiredness and self preservation:

1. How good is your diet and does it suit your training? In other words, are you eating mainly  clean whole unprocessed foods and balancing your carbs, proteins and fats? Experience has shown me that a healthy diet is paramount to having even remotely reasonable energy levels. I also found that for too long I was stuck in the low carb mentality (a leftover from my bodybuilding and prepping for comp days) and I ALWAYS felt totally flat in the afternoons. Now that I eat carbs at lunch time (eg 1 big slice of grainy seed bread or some brown rice) I feel a lot better in the afternoons. The same would go for dinner time if you were running the following morning. Perhaps pay attention to your dinner by juggling carbs up a bit and see if that makes a difference. Oh and I cant promote enough how important I believe good fats are. Salmon, olive oil, olives, nuts etc should be enjoyed regularly. I must add that my husband swears by red meat for iron. When we eat a lot of fish in summer our red meat intake goes right down and he regularly complains of feeling flat and not having energy. A good steak dinner and rest assured, he's pumped to go again (he runs too but never long distances). Apologies if you're a vegetarian.

You mention that you're exhausted after work and I sympathise. Are you able to take 30-40 minutes to yourself and do something you really enjoy to help you wind down and relax? We spend a huge proportion of our lives running from one activity or commitment to another and there never seems to be time to stop and smell the roses. Maybe that simple act (proverbially speaking) will help to balance you. The other side to this is the sleep factor and getting enough each night. I'm an early to bed person to manage my early starts but if you like to stay up later despite some earlier starts then that may be having a negative effect on your energy levels. I'm not sure what to advise about waking up exhausted other than the diet, relaxation and sleep factors. Thats a really tricky one.

Yet having said all that you may take on baord a suggestion or two and it may make a slight difference but essentially it wont remove your situation. It then comes down to your personal goal (to run the marathon) , what it means to you and your level of commitment to it. I think you already know that it wont be easy. (Hey if it was everybody would be doing it LOL.) But I think thats what makes it so exciting, so desirable, so worth going for. And the harder it is the greater the reward and sense of achievement when you've reached your goal.

Gillian the decision is yours. You can convince yourself that its too hard and you have too many obstacles or you can acknowledge that yes its hard and there are obstacles but YOU CAN AND WILL DO IT.

:-) XX M