Agreed, you need to take care of your mental capacity and that is something many athletes really get wrong. You need to `want` to run in March/April - just slogging through will cost you in May. I`ve always felt that one shouldn't `race` a marathon in March/April/May as the recovery afterwards eats into your quality prep time. Qualify in Nov/Dec if you can - take a little break to recover physically/mentally and then drive really focused from mid Jan onwards. I was also a bit fan of quality over quantity and went to the line as a novice with only about 1000km on the legs for the year - in hindsight, I think I would have been better off with 900km but more quality work. Listen to your body rather than chasing miles - you need to stay mentally fresh to get the best out of your training.
