I will be the first to tell you that I am not super stellar at being motivated in my personal life. At work, I tend to move and want to learn more, pushing myself to do better so I can, I guess, climb the ladder. I am not a fan of working. I feel like I have been working for the last 26 years, and I am not a fan of it and I no longer wish to work in the traditional sense of what I do. I perfer the comfort of my home, listening to my favorite writing music and putting my fingers on the keyboard and letting my mind wader as I type. I hit backspace a lot 🙂 While I am in my socks and yoga pants and slippers, sitting in my home feeling the composers pain as the tones of Toccata and Fugue in D Minor beaten into a pipe organ come flying into my ears, I don’t want to do anything. Not house work, not dishes not cleaning, and unless I am pushing very hard to finish a month with one hundred miles or more, I don’t like getting up in the morning and working out.
Alas, it’s now week four of marathon training. The first two weeks of training went fairly well. Got my long runs in and I was starting to have a good flow for it. And then last week, I slipped a bit. Monday wasn’t bad at all. Tuesday I had a schedule change and this became my early day. I got home thinking I was going to be able to change and then get my run in, likely pushing it close to my violin lesson. I instead had a discussion with my husband about the current cover of Runner’s World Magazine. The headline is talking about women and how many are harassed while running.
Needless to say, I didn’t leave the conversation with good feelings. Not like I was angry or anything, but, when trying to explain to someone I know intimately that I felt so inarticulate with my words, I was crushed. I want to make a living out of, essentially, explaing to others how I feel, and this was a huge blow to me. How will I ever be able to do that, if I can’t even express my thoughts to my husband, my best friend? It didn’t sit well with me. The run didn’t happen, though the lesson did. I came home in a funk and I couldn’t shake it. This lead into Wednesday. All day I was off. I couldn’t let it go, didn’t know what to think of it. And then, to make me feel especially good, I had a customer tell me that at my age, there wasn’t any real changes I could make that would allow me to be able to move out of the area, even if I wanted to. I’m stuck. Wow.. That made me feel really good. That night, my husband was the most wonderful man. He held me and loved me and didn’t judge me and wasn’t angry that I was off. I felt so validated. Thursday morning comes along and I didn’t run. I wanted to, but, a few contributing factors had left me feeling like I was getting sick. There have been prescribed burns going on in the area for the last three weeks and with little to no wind, the smoke settles in the trees and air and it gets in your head making you feel like you’ve been hit by a train. I slept in, and I was so glad for that. Friday, I was still not feeling good. Saturday I had planned the long run, 10 miles, but, that just never happened.
Sunday came and I was prepared for it. I had my new water bag out and ready to go, my bag packed with treats and fuel for the run. Everything was ready, and since I was leaving early, I figured I would miss the church crowd. Had my route planned and everything. I was going to run to the stop light and cross and head into Pinetop. From there I would run until I got to 3.8 and turn around. That was going to give me 4 miles left when I get to the stop light. It was more like 3. Now what? I hadn’t planned that part of it. So, I winged it. I was half a mile from home which meant I would need 2.5 miles, which is 1.25 miles one way. Off I go down the road, thinking, I wouldn’t be too long. It felt like an eternity.
I have managed to do pretty well on my workouts since then. I made a giant training calendar and it’s in my room and as the days go by, I mark off another workout completed. Without even realizing it, I am nearing the end of my first four weeks of training. I am surprised how quickly that went by. I am shocked is more like it. Who would have thunk it?
There is always much talk about cross training in my running groups on the internet. I have come to love so many of the people in these groups. It’s a place to be able to say what is on my heart and weighing me down without a lot of judgement. To be fair, I don’t like to air my dirty laundry on the internet. I have from time to time used my blog as a forum to bitch about work, but, after only hours, I have taken them down again. I don’t like to do that. There is such a thing called privacy. Not that I don’t tell people how far I ran today on the daily, but, my private life, I have a hard time talking to others about stuff that is none of their business. I have learned the hard way in my life to know that what gets written down can always be seen. If I don’t want the public to know, I don’t put it to pen, or fingers to keyboard. <<<<SQUIRREL>>>>>
Cross training… There is a lot that can be said about adding some basic weight training to the running. I used to own a weight program and I loved it, but, I couldn’t find it. I knew that for this race, I was going to want to do some serious cross training to help me get into better shape for this race. I want to finish in 6 hours. I know I can walk 30 miles in 8 hours, I am pretty sure I can do 26.2 in less than 6. And by adding the weights, it will help me to tone up more and develop more muscle definition. Like in my legs.. I love my legs!
For this part of it, I wanted to find a good running plan and combine it with the weight training plan that I already have. I am using the methods described in Run Less Run Faster for the running portion of it and ChaLEAN Extreme for the weight part of it. I like how they work together. Three days of running and three days of weights is where I have settled into my plan. I noticed at the end of the second week, I was feeling like my pants were fitting a little nicer. Last week, not only did I let the voices in my head win the battles, but I ate shitty food to go with it. Fried pickles and beer were among the favorites that I had. Along with ice cream, lots of good chocolate ice cream. I knew I was going to have a hard time running on Sunday, but, it was ok. I wasn’t going to quit just because I had a bad few days.
Tomorrow will be the last workout in the Burn phase of the weights. I am so thrilled that I am able to say I have finally finished a full month of this training plan. Bought it years ago, like, before I met my husband, and had all of the workout written down so I could track and I have never made it past the third week in this. I was proud to see that yesterday as I was marking what I was able to lift and how many reps.
Thus far, with only a few days of setbacks, I am pleased with the progress so far. I notice that while I can’t run as long as I want, I have to have some sort of discipline in it, I feel like my legs are so much more powerful. Yay, squats are working! With the winter setting in slowly, I am glad that I’m not trying to kill myself with a ton of miles every day.
Watch out Phoenix Marathon, I am coming for you…… I am going to beat this training cycle.
The Morning High Runner 