Mental Blocks, Ackes and Pains

With 49 days or 8 weeks and 1 day to go until the Denver Rock and Roll Marathon, I am starting to feel like I may have bitten off to much to chew. I recently had a conversation with our cross country coach about my training. We talked about the mental blocks I am having a hard time getting over, my times, and the body ackes. He told me that I am on the right track and I have plenty of time until the Marathon so taking a week off to rest is okay. He told me:

"listen to your body, trust your instincts. You have been running 20-25 miles a week your can get injured easier and you can get sick real easy. Your body has less time to recover and if you push it to hard you'll be watching the Marathon from the TV."

I sat and marinated on his comments and thought to myself, Randy has been a long distance runner for 20+ years and has coached many great runners, I should really take his advice.

All week I have been resting and not getting out to run has been hard for me. I really feel better after I run, I feel like I can clear my head of all the noise of life and just "be one with the road".  I ran Wednesday for Rock Bottom, but it was such a bad run. We all have our off days but today took the cake. I couldn't wash out the noise in my head. It was that mental block I had mentioned a little earlier. The thoughts that many runners say that they face when training are things like:

• What am I thinking? I am never going to be ready for the Marathon
• I still have 8 weeks and I am nowhere near the mileage that I need to be putting in
• My training runs are not long enough or fast enough
• Why should I push myself on this run, I will just walk more than normal, who cares

All these mental blocks are difficult to get over. I feel that I am a fairly confident person and defiantly secure with myself, but this is something new to me. I have read about this and I thought to myself I would not be like the other runners, but you know what? I am like the other runners. I had been told that training and running a marathon will test your mental state and there will be alot of emotional journey's that you will go on. I though to myself these peole are just not tough enough. I was wrong and now I am eating my words. But you know what? It is making me more of a humble person.

So as I sit here all the while I am thinking of lacing up, but the leg ackes and foot pains remind me that I need to rest and take it easy. I am sure a week off will do my body good and I will be back out on the road soon.