This has been a tough month for training for me. Between the terrible weather (cold, snow, wind) and being involved in the kids’ activities, running has taken a back seat to life.
My daughter is a trampolinist, and her gym, Scarborough Gym Elites Gymnastics Club, hosts one of the provincial qualifier meets every year, the 3rd weekend in February. For the last 3 years, I have been on the board of directors of the club, and to say I’m actively involved in this meet is an understatement.
This year was supposed to be different. My enthusiasm and excitement for running was higher than it had been for the last two years. I had plans; train for a spring 3:45 marathon, then maintain the fitness into the summer and run the ENDURRun. It was going to be glorious, and I couldn’t wait to get started.
Then reality set in.
I am now three weeks into my training schedule, and I’m barely getting in half the mileage I should be.
Last week was a bad week, for training, and re-imagining my routine. It started out okay, with me getting up at 5:30am for the first time in… well… a LONG time (race days don’t count). I got my workout done; Mondays are a rest day, so I did some AB exercises and 20 minutes of yoga. Then it was on to making lunches for everyone and getting ready to head out to work.
So. I ran yesterday for the first time since the Mississauga Marathon. Usually I take a week off of running, then ease my way back into it. But 3 days after the race, I came down with a bad cold that refuses to entirely go away. The worst of it lasted for a week, and now it’s tapering off, but way too slowly. I’m tired of coughing, blowing my nose, and sounding totally stuffed up.
Yesterday I had one of the WORST long runs in a long time. One of those really tough, lonely demoralizing runs, which make you wonder what the heck you’re doing, and why.
Most of it is my own fault. I haven’t done the requisite training for my marathon. Not even close. So the base, or foundation wasn’t there. So what made me think that I could run a 32km long run?
Well, so much for my grand plans. I wasn’t able to get my minimum 5km run in yesterday. I intended to do it after coming home from work, before I had to go out again, but ended up leaving too late. SIGH. Story of my life. Other bad habits are also creeping in; I stayed up way too late on Tuesday night trying to catch up with the Walking Dead, and became a walking dead person.
This past Tuesday was the first start of the Running Room marathon clinic I signed up for. You may be wondering why, after running so many marathons, and having taught the clinic twice before, did I feel the need to sign up for it. Well, I have a few reasons:
Wanted to find a new group of people to run/train with. Figured that officially signing up for a clinic with $$ would make me more committed to getting out during the week.
There’s a little over one week left before the ENDURrun, and I don’t feel at all ready. My running has suffered again over the last week; I either didn’t have time to fit it in, or the ones that I did fit in, sucked.
Yesterday I went out at lunchtime to do a 10km tempo, with two tough hills in it. It was rough; weather was humid, and I just didn’t have the gas to do that kind of aggressive running.
I had a great hilly 10km run last night with my running partner, the kind of run that was tough, but not too tough. It reminded me of some of the reasons why I enjoy doing this as a sport. As I’ve posted, I’ve had some motivation problems with my current batch of training, and have sought the advice of my closest friends and family.
The advice I’ve gotten seems to fall into the following categories:
Here we are, some 43 days away from the ENDURrun, and I have only done a handful of meaningful training sessions. It’s been very difficult to get back into training mode after the Mississauga Marathon. I did the requisite 2 weeks of rest and recovery; it took that long for my legs to stop hurting. But I had lingering knee and foot issues, issues that still bother me today.
My knee was the one that worried me the most.