Marathon training

Awesome 5 mile run yesterday.  This is not impressive unless you consider that I haven’t run at all since the marathon. This is my second official training run – adding a mile every week until I hit the 20 something mark. This year I NEEDED A BREAK; my hamstring was killing me and I was just plain sick of running.

I thought long and hard about whether I was going to do the Marathon again after last year; if I’m honest I will say that I’m still on the fence even after I’ve paid my registration fees, agreed to raise more money for the Liver Foundation and started training.  I really don’t want to dedicate the kind of time it requires, I hate running in the snow and my family doesn’t want me to do it given the worry of last year. I don’t want to spend every week trying to figure out how I will fit a 3 hours run in amongst kids’ activities and LIFE.  In the end I decided to do it because I knew I would crawl out of my skin watching it and not being a part of it and I want to teach my kids that when you set a goal you stick to it – period. Or maybe it’s as simple as I want to cross the finish line and feel that the medal I got last year is real. The fact that I can eat an entire pizza and not feel guilty after I finish is a bonus.

Yesterday as I was running I thought of how amazing it is to have a goal. I didn’t realize that a difference it would make. I used to run 3 or 4 miles and quit because I was tired or because that’s just what I planned. The truth is that when I have a goal to run 5, 6, 7 or whatever I feel the same at mile 4 as I would have if I quit then and there. It’s just that I know I have to run more, so I do. Just put one foot in front of the other – it’s that simple. It’s been a great confidence builder for other areas of my life when I tend to get overwhelmed.   

This year I have some changes to the plan I would like to make

1. Run as little as possible. That’s right: I said it. I like boot camp and I want to do that more than run.   I started going to a boot camp in the spring and I have been very impressed by the results (meaning I look less porky than I did when running only). When I started I saw a bunch of suburban mothers and I thought: “I just ran a marathon I can do this!” How embarrassing to discover that I couldn’t do more than one man push up.  It’s like I’m the Pillsbury dough boy from the waist up. Last year in retrospect I was out of balance; over conditioning my legs and not enough focus on the core. No wonder I ended up with a hamstring injury that plagued me all year. I read an article about cardio that made a lot of sense to me; especially when you consider I didn’t lose an ounce during marathon training. Don’t get me wrong I DO love to run. I love the freedom of it – that I can just put my shoes on and go; no driving to class and having to see other people or wait for class to start. I love to be outside and I love to listen to my music and be alone in my thoughts. But everything this article makes sense to me and was proven in my training vs. just a few months of bootcamp.   http://athlete.io/5343/why-women-should-not-run/
2. Drink more water. God how I hate drinking water. I would prefer to up my quota of wine which is probably not even possible.  I now track how much water I drink and often will take a half gallon and chug as I count to 20. I read somewhere that you should drink half your body weight every day. I wasn’t near that and my boot camp lady says if you work out you should drink even more. When I’m being good I feel like my organs are drowning in water but overall I do feel better.  And at least now I’m drinking more water than wine and that can’t be bad.
3. Stretching. I started going to physical therapy this summer after the hamstring injury decided to stay around. What an amazing difference it has made. They have taught me areas where I’m weak and what stretches and exercises to overcome. But best of all I get my ass upper hamstring rubbed once a week. Fucking heaven. It’s so easy not to do the stretching; when you get into hard core training and running for 3-4 hours on a Saturday it’s all you can do to make dinner never mind stretching for a half hour. My husband is now used to me sitting in front to the TV contorting myself into a pretzel while he watches the tube.            
4. Speed work. Every time I increased my mileage last year I got a little slower. This was partly due to the fact that I was becoming more and more injured but also because I didn’t follow any of the recommended training programs on doing fartleks (speed work). The turtle doesn’t like speed work but I am going to try it this year.  Really I am….soon.

I’m just as scared of running the marathon this year as I was last year but I’m gonna try and take it one week at a time. If I didn’t I might change my mind. The hardest part of all of it is being consistent. When I’m good I’m really good. When I’m bad I’m really bad and these things tend to cancel each other out. I try to push myself but I try to give myself a break too. My body feels the pain of my indecision. But for now the goals above are all I’m committing to.