Thanks, everyone. I'm finding that missing my goals is more annoying than upsetting, because under normal circumstances I think I could run a BQ too. And I didn't miss it because I did something wrong - I trained as well as I could and ran the race as well as I could. So that's kind of frustrating.
I am assuming this mess is all due to biomarker deficiencies, which I guess I don't know for sure, but I don't have another explanation. Otherwise, it's hard to see why I would be getting slower.
With that in mind, I think the one thing I would change, knowing what I know now, is to do less training. I'm pretty sure I actually got slower throughout the training block, and I think it's because it's not just my paces that were affected but also my recovery. I think I could normally handle this level of training, but because my recovery was slower, I just kept digging the hole slightly deeper every week.
But I didn't actually know what the problem was until about 11 weeks into a 16-week training block, and then it was too late. If I can manage it, I might try to do a blood test at least at the beginning of each marathon block so I know what I'm getting into and have time to address any issues.
But now I'm thinking about what comes next. Not that I've done much of anything this week besides a little bit of yoga. I'll probably try a very short run tomorrow and see how I feel. But in a broader sense, I'm planning to dial it back for a while to give myself a chance to get back to normal. I'm thinking of stepping back to five days of running per week for now (once I get back to a regular schedule). I might do a little more strength with the extra time, but not much more - that would kind of defeat the purpose.
So we'll see how that goes. I'm looking at a couple of 5Ks in the new year, since I don't really need high mileage to run a decent 5K. I might also run the Celebration Half Marathon in January just for fun; I'm thinking about making that my next marathon (even though it wouldn't be until 2027) and that would be a chance to try it out and get a sense of the event. I asked about it in another group and the reviews were pretty positive. That would mean not running any marathons in 2026, but that's okay. Avoiding summer marathon training would definitely be a plus!
Right now, the only race I'm actually signed up for next year is the DC Half (just because I do it every year and the early bird price was ending). It's kind of weird not having an obvious goal coming up next, but it's probably helpful in terms of giving my body a chance to build up its missing micronutrients rather than devoting all its energy to training.
(Okay, there are technically two months left in 2025, but it's going to take me pretty much that whole time just to recover from the marathon, so in running terms, my year is over. That's just how it works.)
So that's what's going on here. Seriously, thank you all for following along - having a little virtual running community is the best.
