Deconditioned Doldrums

In the realm of personal training, there is a phenomenon known as Deconditioning or Detraining. Most folks would simply understand those concepts as being "out of shape", but the word detraining or the phrase 'out of shape' implies that you were once trained or "in shape". In any event, I find myself significantly deconditioned. About this time last year, I ran both the L.A. Marathon and Big Sur Marathon. Since then, I have essentially stopped training. Sitting here today, I don't even really have a good explanation as to why I stopped training, but I suppose it was a combination of weather (e.g. running in Las Vegas when it is HOT is very tough), and lack of motivation (e.g. I had a achieved my goal so I was lacking any goal-based motivation to continue logging the long miles).

Thus, here I am, a little over a year later, and detrained. Being detrained, I believe, is mentally tougher than having been sedentary; reason being, as you start exercising again, you know and feel that your performance is not what it once was, and you run a greater risk of injury because you are likely to train more intensely than you should. I used to be able to log 18-22 mile training runs, now I barely want to run more than 4 miles; also, I am slower and my effort more labored. Granted, those results are to be expected as a result of being detrained, but still, it makes it very difficult to get up and go.

This blog may help somewhat in that I will post my daily workout; so, out of pure embarrassment, I will want to have at least something posted most days. :) This time around, I am going to focus on the Half-Marathon and work on getting faster. When I trained for L.A. and Big Sur, the goal was more about completion, but now, I really want to improve my performance. I have never really been a "fast" runner, even during my time with the Naval Special Forces, I was one of the slower runners (by comparison). Also, my schedule does not lend itself to loging the distance I would need to 'really' train for a full marathon.