Riya

Meet Riya, a longtime runner who is competing in the Boston Marathon every year. Doing this requires a yearly qualifier, but this year her life stressors have gotten in the way of finding the motivation to train, making her feel like she’s in a training slump.

Looking at Riya’s running this year, she is anything but unmotivated. She just ran three marathons in the course of four weeks—The Sydney, Cascade Express, and Berlin Marathons! It is more than normal to feel tired after a month of such big exertion, and that can show up as lack of motivation. In reality, it’s likely the body’s way of requesting a break. Plus, stress is stress to the body, whether from life or exercise, and there’s a limit to how much we can ask from our physiology.

Now that Riya has rested with minimal running, she’s excited to follow a plan to get her mojo back and qualify for Boston in the California International Marathon. Sometimes it simply takes a schedule to remind our bodies that we love the sport.

Since we know Riya can finish marathons on minimal training, her plan will focus on gradually introducing speed in the form of strides, track intervals, and goal marathon pace segments in her long runs.

Good luck at CIM Riya!