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#HURDLEMOMENT: How to Handle Post-Marathon Blues · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hey, Hurdler's Emily a body here with another episode of
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hurdle Moment from Hurdle, a podcast that talks to everyone
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: from entrepreneurs to top CEOs and athletes about how they've
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: gotten through tough times hurdles of sorts by leaning into wellness.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna be honest with you. I probably started recording
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: three different topics for this week's Hurdle Moment, and none
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: of them were resonating with me. Lately, I feel super sporadic,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: and to be honest, a little upset. And you know
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: what that is. It's post marathon blues. And so instead
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  Speaker 1: of talking to something that doesn't feel true to me
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: in the moment, I'm gonna break that down today. I'm
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: going to talk about how to navigate what's going on
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: in your mind, how to downshift after a really intense
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  Speaker 1: training cycle, and how to treat yourself with a little
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  Speaker 1: bit of kindness. If you just conquered a marathon, no
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: matter what your pace was, no matter what your goals were,
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  Speaker 1: you went through a lot and that is something to
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  Speaker 1: be celebrated. And just like something like a wedding, for example,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: you prep so much for this one big day and
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  Speaker 1: then within a matter of hours all that work and
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  Speaker 1: the day it's behind you. It's normal to feel like
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  Speaker 1: you suddenly lack a little bit of purpose, that you
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: feel uninspired. Trust me, that is one hundred percent how
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  Speaker 1: I feel now. But I keep reminding myself and we'll
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  Speaker 1: get into this in today's episode, that you had goals
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  Speaker 1: like this before, you conquered them before, and now you
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  Speaker 1: have the opportunity to find something new, to set your
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  Speaker 1: sights on, something exciting and go after that too. You
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: know the drill at Emily a Body at Hurdle podcast.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: If you have a hurdle moment of your own to share,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: if you feel what I'm feeling, I get an amen,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: shoot me an email. It's Emily at hurdle dot us.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: And with that, let's get to hurdling post marathon blues.
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  Speaker 1: Like I said, it's like you're planning this big event
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  Speaker 1: and you work so hard for months and months. Your
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  Speaker 1: time is dedicated to this one thing. You wake up
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  Speaker 1: early to run, you go to bed early so that
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  Speaker 1: you can wake up early to run. You turn down
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  Speaker 1: plans to make all of these things fit into your schedule,
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  Speaker 1: and it's a lot of opportunity cost. The first thing
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  Speaker 1: to do if you feel like you're experiencing this post
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  Speaker 1: marathon come down is be upfront with it with yourself.
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  Speaker 1: It's okay to feel this way, and by masking it
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  Speaker 1: or pretending that you're not feeling a little off, then
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  Speaker 1: that's not going to do you any good. You know,
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  Speaker 1: back in college, when I knew that I was overweight,
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  Speaker 1: I knew that nothing was going to happen unless I
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  Speaker 1: was ready to face the music by stepping on the scale,
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  Speaker 1: by seeing what was frightening to me at the time,
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  Speaker 1: that two hundred plus pound number. I took the challenge
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  Speaker 1: head on and was then willing to make positive progress.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: You cannot make positive progress unless you're willing to be
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  Speaker 1: honest with yourself. One more time, you cannot make positive
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: progress unless you are willing to be honest with yourself.
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  Speaker 1: And sometimes these truths they're just not easy to face. Okay.
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  Speaker 1: Second thing you can do when you have the post
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  Speaker 1: marathon blues you gotta find a new goal. And I'm
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  Speaker 1: not saying like the second that the marathon is over,
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  Speaker 1: you need to be setting your sights on another race.
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  Speaker 1: But it's just like when you hit a plateau in
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  Speaker 1: your training at that time, what the experts will advise
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  Speaker 1: is shifting up the dialogue, shifting up what your goal
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  Speaker 1: is at that given moment, and by doing that, it
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  Speaker 1: lets you take the focus off of something that feels
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  Speaker 1: stagnant and allows you to focus on another area that
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  Speaker 1: you might need to strengthen and then revisit where you started.
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  Speaker 1: So by choosing another goal, and I would suggest that
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  Speaker 1: this goal actually has nothing to do with running, There
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  Speaker 1: is nothing more frustrating for a runner the second they
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  Speaker 1: finish a marathon and someone's like, so, what's next. So
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  Speaker 1: find a goal that sets your soul on fire. Maybe
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  Speaker 1: it's I want to read three books by the end
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  Speaker 1: of next month, or I'm going to take some more
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  Speaker 1: time to reconnect with the people in my life that
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  Speaker 1: matter to me. As we all know, a lot of
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  Speaker 1: that training time it takes you away from these people.
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  Speaker 1: So committing to being better to making coffee dates and
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  Speaker 1: catch up moments and going for a yoga class with
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  Speaker 1: a good friend, or going back home to see your family,
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  Speaker 1: whatever the case may be. Whatever goals that you want
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  Speaker 1: to set, it doesn't need to be something big and
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  Speaker 1: lofty like a marathon. It can just be smaller things
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  Speaker 1: to help you direct your attention somewhere. Trust me, it
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  Speaker 1: doesn't help when you're on this come down if all
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  Speaker 1: you're doing is sitting on the couch and watching Netflix
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  Speaker 1: and kind of just bathing in this melancholy feeling. The
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  Speaker 1: next tip I have for anyone feeling like they've got
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  Speaker 1: the post marathon blues is talk to someone about it.
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  Speaker 1: You know. I realized late last week after the marathon,
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  Speaker 1: I had an interaction with someone that wasn't exactly stellar,
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  Speaker 1: and it made me really upset, to the point that
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  Speaker 1: I noticed that, like I felt like it overcame me,
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  Speaker 1: and I realized when I took a step back that
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  Speaker 1: it wasn't the interaction or what was said. It triggered
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  Speaker 1: this reaction, but it wasn't what was actually making me sad.
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  Speaker 1: I was honest with myself that there were some things
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  Speaker 1: I need to talk about. I'm the kind of person
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  Speaker 1: that when I feel frustrated or upset, a lot of
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  Speaker 1: the time, I will try to keep that bottled inside
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  Speaker 1: because I don't want to burden anyone with my problems.
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  Speaker 1: I'm like, I can handle this, I'll figure it out,
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  Speaker 1: I'll move forward whatever the case. Maybe, But the thing
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  Speaker 1: is is that by continually just locking it up and
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  Speaker 1: locking it up and locking it up. You're not doing
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  Speaker 1: yourself any good. And so I realized that I had
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  Speaker 1: been pulling away from the people that I was talking
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  Speaker 1: to constantly just because I felt like I didn't want
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  Speaker 1: to bring them down with the stuff that was bothering me.
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  Speaker 1: In reality, that is not the move. And now having
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  Speaker 1: gone through this, I hope that I can encourage you
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  Speaker 1: also to talk to someone if you're feeling stagnant, if
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  Speaker 1: you're feeling alone, if you're feeling like I'm not sure
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  Speaker 1: what to do now, if you're confused about all this
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  Speaker 1: free time, just you know, open up a little bit.
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  Speaker 1: That's what the people that care about you are for
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  Speaker 1: all right now, The next thing I will suggest is
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  Speaker 1: filling up your calendar. So, yes, you just did a
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  Speaker 1: really big, impressive event. That is great, you deserve some downtime.
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  Speaker 1: But I'm talking about for the people that feel as
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  Speaker 1: that they're really going through it right now, the best
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  Speaker 1: thing you can do is schedule show yourself a little bit.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: And also this is the perfect time to look into
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  Speaker 1: other hobbies. So maybe it's going to a panel discussion
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  Speaker 1: with a friend one night and then the next day
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  Speaker 1: it is taking a yoga class, and then the next
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  Speaker 1: day it's I'm going to take the time to actually
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  Speaker 1: plan a trip that I'm thinking about next year. Whatever.
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  Speaker 1: It is just scheduling yourself out a little bit so
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  Speaker 1: that you have little things to look forward to as
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  Speaker 1: you go throughout your week. Another suggestion, write things down.
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  Speaker 1: I'm a big advocate for journaling. I write in a
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  Speaker 1: gratitude journal every day, and for me seeing things, seeing
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  Speaker 1: my words, seeing my thoughts on paper, it gives me
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  Speaker 1: the opportunity to kind of get it all out there,
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  Speaker 1: and it's also helpful in the future. Right this way,
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  Speaker 1: if you choose to do another marathon and I think
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  Speaker 1: I've got some repeat offenders that listen to the pod,
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  Speaker 1: then you can look back on your notes from this
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  Speaker 1: time and remember how you felt right now. It's just
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  Speaker 1: as important and as keeping track of where your head's
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  Speaker 1: at during your training is to really be mindful of
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  Speaker 1: where your head is at after and be proud. And
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  Speaker 1: that's the last hidbit. Be proud of what you've done.
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  Speaker 1: No matter how things went on race day, you did
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  Speaker 1: something excellent. You did something that has forever made you
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  Speaker 1: a better person, and that is something to be so
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  Speaker 1: happy about take the time to recognize your accomplishment, to
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  Speaker 1: celebrate your accomplishment, and to just listen to your body.
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  Speaker 1: I'm getting so many questions about post race recovery. Trust me,
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  Speaker 1: it's another thing. It's come in, it's on my radar.
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  Speaker 1: But the most important thing that you can do after
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  Speaker 1: you're done is to just listen to your body. Everyone
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  Speaker 1: is different. Everyone will handle the days and the weeks
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  Speaker 1: and the months after race day in their own way.
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  Speaker 1: But you owe it to yourself to be intuitive about
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  Speaker 1: what's going on and what you are capable of handling
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: going forward. And that means with regard to the post
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  Speaker 1: marathon blues, that yes, we're trying to schedule ourselves a
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  Speaker 1: little bit. Yes we're setting smaller goals of other things
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  Speaker 1: that we want to accomplish. But if you need to unplug,
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  Speaker 1: if you need to kick back, you do you. You earned
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  Speaker 1: that right, you know we all have, and that's it.
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  Speaker 1: I'm keeping it short this week. I myself am feeling
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  Speaker 1: just so sporadic and a little all over the place,
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  Speaker 1: but I understand that it's just part of the process,
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  Speaker 1: and I feel very fortunate and super lucky to have
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  Speaker 1: a lot of people listening on the other end of
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  Speaker 1: this microphone that that really know where I'm coming from.
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  Speaker 1: So thanks for sticking with me again. Thanks for all
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: of your messages and dms recently. You guys just make
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  Speaker 1: a girl feel loved and do me one favor. If
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  Speaker 1: you don't mind share this episode, if you're a marathoner,
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  Speaker 1: if you feel like you can relate to this episode,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: if you're an aspiring marathoner, whatever it is. If you
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: I know someone that can benefit from this, please send
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: it to them. Again. You're not alone. None of us
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: are alone. We have the opportunity to help each other
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  Speaker 1: and lift each other up, and I think we should
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  Speaker 1: take it. Another hurdle conquered. Catch you guys next time.