Is Your Racing In a Rut?

Early writings by Joe Henderson are filled with much relevant and useable info.Joe was a runner first and then he was in on the formative days of Runner's World when it stressed mileage and performance.Consider the following self-evaluation which helps to determine if your racing or training has bogged down or is in a rut.Sometimes we runners just don't see or ignore the fact that we are.This of course will prevent us from improving and fully enjoying our running experience. Ask yourself:
1. "Do you insist on matching to the minute the amounts of training ordered by the schedule?
2.Are you nagged by chronic low-grade aches and pains that you must not allow to interfere with your program?
3.Do you frequently get bored with your training but still run your daily quotas?
4.Do you often find yourself dreading and delaying the start of your runs until you can psych yourself up to do them?
5.Would you stop training as you do if the races races didn't require it of you?
6.Before races,do you magnify every minor physical complaint into a race threatening crisis?
7.Have your racing times stopped improving even though you work as hard as ever?
8.Are your confidence and enthusiasm badly shaken by any racing slump?
9.After races,are you more likely to complain about what went wrong than to bring up what went right?
10.Have you come to expect better results from yourself than you can produce?
The more you answer yes,the more sure you can be that you have raced yourself into a rut. If more than half of those questions describe you,ease up on yourself. The training and the racing are running you--rather than vice versa."

How true that last line is, 'The training and racing are running you---rather than vice versa.'
I can relate to #'s 3,4, 5,6 and 9. I know runners who have driven themselves crazy because they just don't recognize that they are in what Henderson aptly describes as a rut. How 'bout you?