So yes, it's been quite a while since I've blogged...the truth is "blog" has been on my to-do list for a very long time, but it's been hard. Everything has been hard relating to my training. I also hate writing negative posts, but finally I remembered my goal was to chronicle my ups and downs of training and while it sucks, the truth is this training has had a lot of downs.
The weather has been oppressive making running outside, for the most part, only happen for distances higher than 7 miles (I say 7 miles because my gym only lets you run on treadmill for an hour and it takes me a few minutes less than an hour to run 7 miles ha ha)
I had no idea how hard training in the winter would be. It's FREEZING at 5am! Getting up to go to lift inside a warm gym at 5:30 am is tough...the idea of getting up to go outside to run is mind boggling and hasn't happened. (I have gotten up to run inside a warm gym tho) Another difficult aspect of winter training is black ice. If I had the motivation to get up to run that early, on freezing cold days, I feared black ice. The wrong footing on a small piece of black ice could finish me! Still ANOTHER aspect of winter training that killed me is how dark it gets so early. Mid-day is ideal for running, but I don't think my bosses would love the idea of me leaving in the middle of the school day to get my run in. ha ha When it gets dark so early I'm a) in the mindset that it's night so I get tired and lazy and b) fear the danger of black ice, again. My long runs on Saturdays have all been outside since I can go mid-day when it's the safest and warmest. I'll be positive and say I did get some nice color on my face during my long runs on Saturdays...thanks reflection off the mountain sized mounds of snow! ha ha (I used a fair amount of bronzer this winter since only my face was exposed so only my face got color-my neck was a VERY white and had to be blended to my face ha ha)
I've talked before about running being very mental. Your mind quits long before your body. I've also mentioned that winter is generally tough for me as I am affected my the darkness of winter and experience the "winter blues". Pair that with soreness I hadn't experienced during summer training and you've got a recipe for disaster.
I've had a classic case of "what came first the chicken or the egg?". Has training been tough because I'm experiencing soreness due to a lot of indoor training so when I get outside to run it's much harder between low temps and battling the elements like snow/ice/debris on the roads or is it harder because of the winter blues have me lethargic, sick, and down? I'm sure one is affecting the the other and both are making training awful.
My chiropractor and I are going to be best buddies by the time this marathon is over. I feel like I'm in constant pain and needing his assistance. I ran 13.1 yesterday and today I'm walking around like I did the day after my 1st 1/2 marathon-thankfully tomorrow is a chiro day.
My runs are consistent with times I had during my last training...so if consistent is all I have right now, it's all I have...I'm hoping that having consistent times even when I'm dealing with all these winter annoyances and feeling this poorly about the entire experience will mean as race day nears winter will be going and maybe, just maybe, the disappearance of winter will also make my struggles disappear and lead to a better times and feelings at the end of my training and for my race.
I truly hate being so negative so I'll try again to put a positive spin....I'm doing it. I'm doing my best and I'm realizing that I may not be where I hoped to be, I'm not exactly feeling like I did at this point in my last marathon training, I'm not always running EXACTLY as the schedule dictates, and I'm often wanting to throw in the towel, but I'm doing it....
"Relish the bad training runs. Without them it's difficult to recognize, much less appreciate, the good ones."
-Pat Teske
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