Training stalled then jump started

Well, I feel like a dropped off the face of the earth for awhile. But....I'm back!! Here's what happened. This whole past year all I can think about is finishing a marathon. I'm obsessing about a marathon. Can I do it? How can I train? Will I get injured? Which one should I sign up for? You get the picture. So, I finally gear up and after I finished the Salinas Valley Half, I signed up for the California International Marathon.

It seemed like the perfect race. Not too far from home (yes, a hotel room but not too far to drive to). I studied the weather patterns :

During the CIM's history, the vast majority of the races have had perfect running conditions - no rain, very light winds and temperatures that range in the low 40s (F) at the start to the upper 50s/low 60s (F) at the finish.  There were less than a handful of CIMs with noticeable rain (15%) and two of those rain days (7%) were described as storm conditions with gusting winds. CIM

The elevation seems ideal. Starting at 366 feet and ending at 26 feet. 

Perfect. Ideal. Awesome. Amazing. 

But as soon as I signed up I suddenly felt blah. Nothing. Not excited. Dreaded running. Ugh. What happened?!?!?! That lasted for a couple of weeks and I was seriously wondering what the heck happened. Even an easy 3-5 mile run was dreadery. But, thankfully, things have turned around. I did that nice 10 miles on the treadmill. It wasn't fun but I did it. Then I did some short runs. One I did with my husband and it sucked. It was only about 5 miles but I had no motivation. Then I did an awesome 8 miles alone. Was supposed to do 7 but did an extra mile because everything felt great.  so things are feeling better and I'm getting more motivated. 

This  past weekend we went to Paso Robles with some friends and had a great time. Did some wine tasting and water park with the kids. My friend and I even got in a 6 mile run. Was supposed to run 5 but once again it was another great run. We ran along the vineyards past a couple of wineries and it was very pretty. 

So now I'm back on track. Things are feeling good. I'm trying to go to Crossfit for a few more weeks then I might switch to just cross training on my own. I really don't want to get injured so I might step back from it for a bit. 

Well, that's about it with me. Wanted to post this great Crock Pot Chili recipe we made over the weekend. So yummy and it makes alot so plenty of leftovers. 

Here is the recipe.

http://passthesushi.com/slow-cooker-super-easy-big-batch-chili/

And finally I got a new app for my phone. (just what I needed. Ha!) just so I can obsess some more. Here's a look :

Short run tonight after my daughter's water polo game, Crossfit tomorrow and then 12 mile long run this weekend. 

Any advise in staying focused? Motivated?