Has it been months since my last post? Yes. I have no excuses...just life being life-crazy!
I'm currently in my 12th week of training for the Philly Marathon. I have 110 days until the big event! Like my last fall marathon, I really enjoy the training being primarily in the summer (mostly because my work schedule is so flexible making my training schedule flexible). The first 9 weeks were awesome. I was really on schedule and killing my runs. I felt incredibly strong physically and mentally. My friend, Lou, has been running most training runs with me which really helps. He's not training for anything so I call the shots....my pace, my run length, etc. I'm taking better care warming up, cooling down, and stretching as they are areas I generally glaze over. After fracturing my pelvis and my hip before the 2014 Philly Marathon I know these are no longer areas I can cheat on.
This summer, I booked a 16 day trip to Europe with some friends. I knew training would be tough as we'd be exploring countries and primarily on a cruise ship, but I was confident I could get it all in. Well not so much. The day I left (Thursday) I lifted and ran so I got my Thursday workout and my Friday workout essentially done. Besides, I knew we'd be walking a ton on Friday so that "counted". On Saturday we rented bikes and toured Copenhagen for 6 hours. Granted it wasn't strenuous and we obviously stopped for beers along the way, but I counted that 6 hours of "biking" as a workout (I know, I know I was stretching it). After that it was all down hill...12 days on the ship with touring 6 countries, eating, and drinking all day and night made squeezing in a workout difficult, at best. I had every intention of getting my runs in...I really did.
Here's what my run schedule was supposed to look like: 1:10, 1:28, lift, 55, 35, lift, 55, 1:16, 1:35, lift, 1:00, 36, lift, 1:00. The lifting happened....The runs were at most, an hour (ok, ok I only did an hour long run once-ha ha) The other, maybe, 5 runs I did were each 50 minutes max. I was so far off my training schedule it got to a point where I said, "The hell with this I'll figure it out later." It didn't help that my friends were encouraging me to have drink by the pool instead of running...I'm a sucker for peer pressure!
We returned home late Friday night so I told myself I'd get back to it on Saturday. Well Saturday had me missing our awesome adventure and doing laundry, and being exhausted so I went on a bike ride instead. Sunday HAD to be my day to get serious and it was....I went on a 17 mile bike ride, did a yoga class, and did a training run....The run was not the 1:42 I was scheduled to do, but I did something. Monday I was back at it, I ran 45 minutes except I WANTED TO DIE! It was the hardest run I can remember in a long time. ("If you want to play, you gotta pay"-Stephen King) Luckily today is another short run so this week seems like a perfect segue back to my training. Am I worried?...kind of...I truly hope the 16 days of "anarchy" hasn't ruined my chances of qualifying, but I still have 110 days to train. I've already decided, if I don't qualify in November it's because of this trip! ha ha
As I've mentioned in previous posts, I have the ability to qualify....my stumbling block is my mental game. I'm my own worst enemy. I'm really trying to say, "what's done is done, now move on". I hope staying positive will be all it takes. When I initially got hurt in October, before we knew the severity of my injuries, my coach kept telling me, "your body won't forget all you've done in 2 weeks...you can come back from this." I'm hoping she meant that to be true for an injury AND for 16 days of mayhem in Europe!
Here's to the next 110 days of training!
"Running is a big question mark that's there each and every day. It asks you, 'Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today?"
- Peter Maher, Canadian marathon runner
No comments:
Post a Comment